Gool refuses to sign affidavit

2002-02-11 18:14

Cape Town - Former Cape Times photographer Benny Gool has refused to sign an an affidavit authenticating photographs he took of the "lynching" of gang boss Rashaad Staggie outside his home in Salt River, Cape Town, in 1996.

The Cape High Court heard on Monday that the Cape Times engaged a security company to protect photographer Benny Gool while he was still employed by the newspaper.

Gool took photographs of gang-boss Rashaad Staggie's August 1996 murder, allegedly by members of People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad). He has refused to obey a subpoena to testify in the trial, saying to do so would jeopardise his work as a news photographer.

For security reasons, Gool was taken off editorial duties, and the newspaper at one stage even considered offering him an overseas post, said Gool's legal team, Sean Rosenberg and Susie Cowen. They were explaining his defiance of the subpoena.

They said Gool's testimony would have given the wrong impression that he had some association with the prosecution in the Rashaad Staggie trial, which would have endangered his life and the safety of his family.

Gool had received a number of death threats since August last year, they said.

They said the danger was very real that media reporters and photographers testifying for the State in criminal trials would be intimidated.

The court had to conclude that threats of intimidation and violence were not idle and a large number of State witnesses had been eliminated in suspicious circumstances.

Gool's credibility as an independent, impartial journalist would also be undermined if he were forced to testify.

They said a free and independent media was indispensible in South Africa, and the freedom of the media was enshrined in the constitution.

The "last-resort" principle demanded that media reporters and photographers only be used as State witnesses as a very last resort, and to use them prematurely was an infringement of the constitution.

The prosecution team, Jannie van Vuuren and Piet Steyn, contended in turn that Gool's defiance of the subpoena showed his total disregard and contempt for the court.

They said the Staggie murder trial was not the correct place for Gool to argue the question of a just excuse for his failure to attend the proceedings.

The correct procedure was in the first instance to arrest Gool in terms of the Criminal Procedure Act, and to then punish him if his reason for defying the subpoena was unacceptable - not to first hear his reason and then decide whether to arrest and punish him.

Prosecutors acted in the interest of society. Gool was part of society, they said.

The State wants to use authenticated photographs taken by Die Burger photographer Christo Lotter and Gool in the trial of four Pagad members, including its national coordinator Abdus-Salaam Ebrahim.

Judgment in the matter concerning Gool is expected on Tuesday.

- SAPA