Bail hearing gets out of hand
2008-04-14 19:32
Sydney Masinga and Oris Mnisi
Nelspruit - The bail application in the double murder case against Bushbuckridge mayor Milton Morema and two co-accused had to be postponed on Monday when the proceedings became too rowdy.
Magistrate George Risimati became irate as arguments between the Mpumalanga organised crime unit and the defence team got out of hand.
He then postponed the hearing until Tuesday and told both the defence and prosecution teams to "stop making a noise".
"I hope this won't happen tomorrow (Tuesday)," he said.
He also complained that proceedings had started late.
The hearing is being heard in the Acornhoek Periodical Court, which was filled with supporters from the ANC Youth League, who threatened journalists and covered their cameras with blankets.
Morema was arrested last Thursday and has been kept in custody since then.
Shot in forehead
On Monday, he appeared with his two co-accused, a regional municipal manager in the Casteel local municipality, Lakios Mosoma, and Erasmus Makhubela, who is Morema's cousin.
The murder victims include teacher Motion Mashile who was shot in the forehead in 2003 while vying with Mosoma for the position of principal at Green Valley primary school.
His body was dumped near a railway track.
On Friday, police exhumed the body of a second victim who was buried in a cemetery in the Mahushu area near Hazyview.
The body is believed to belong to the hitman who was hired to kill the teacher.
The hitman, Jeffrey Mathebula, 24, of Acornhoek, is suspected of being murdered in 2003 when he allegedly threatened to spill the beans because he was paid only R5 000 of the R17 000 promised for the
job.
Morema and Mosoma are accused of hiring Morema's cousin to kill Mathebula.
Mosoma, who was also arrested on Thursday, eventually did not get the principal's post, but was instead hired as a regional manager at the Casteel local municipality.
'Protected' by some policemen
Police also arrested an Acornhoek police sergeant last week who was accused of supplying the murder weapons, but he was later released when it was found that they had the wrong man.
The police officer who reportedly supplied the guns had been stabbed to death last year.
Hlathi said Morema had been under investigation since 2003 and would have been arrested earlier, but was protected by some police officers at Acornhoek police station.
Morema is the second mayor to be arrested for murder in Mpumalanga.
Sipho Nkosi, the mayor of the Govan Mbeki local municipality in Secunda, was arrested in August last year after being implicated as a suspect in the assassination of his deputy, Thandi Mtsweni, who was investigating tender irregularities.
Mtsweni was gunned down on June 27 last year in front of her son and husband at their home.
Nkosi is currently out on R10 000 bail while his five co-accused are in custody.
They will appear in court on May 9 again.