Judge blasts justice ministry

A Johannesburg judge gave the Department of Justice a tongue-lashing yesterday for a six-year delay in giving three prisoners documentation relating to the judgments against them, thus preventing them from lodging petitions for leave to appeal.

The hopes of prisoners Moses Khoza, Shakes Makhubela and Dingane Ntuli of being freed yesterday were dashed by Judge Kathy Satchwell - who had promised on Monday to release them from prison because of the department's "gross incompetence''. The judge, who described the debacle as a "total disaster", ordered the department to present its documents to the court in six weeks.

The three men had taken Justice Minister Jeff Radebe to court to force him to release the 2006 judgments from their criminal trial, which they intended to use to petition the court to allow two judges to hear their application for leave to appeal against their convictions and sentences.

The men were forced to delay their application for six years after they were told that the records from their trial, and the entire court file, were missing.

"I am cross with the system and its incompetence," said Satchwell.

The men, who stood trial together, were convicted in 2006 and sentenced to two life terms each for murder. They received additional sentences on 12 counts, including attempted murder, housebreaking and possession of stolen property.

Satchwell said she was "appalled" and "aggrieved" by the injustice inflicted on the men over the years by the Justice Department, which she said was riddled with gross mismanagement.

She told the men that her frustrations had forced her to confront the court's Judge President Bernard Ngoepe and trial judge Nico Coetzee, who handed down the sentence in 2006.

Judge Satchwell told the court that Coetzee had told her that he would hand over his bench book to assist the court to transcribe and reconstruct the 2006 judgment.

"In my view, this is a disaster," Satchwell said. "The entire case has to be reconstructed and both the prosecutor and the defence have to go through the entire evidence."

She ordered the department to have the documents ready by March 27, and that failure to do so would result in the men's release from prison.

She ordered advocate Deon Barnard, who was representing the department, to procure all the documentation from Judge Coetzee.

Barnard, who was new to the case, said: "I am very aggrieved. I don't think justice has been done. I'm very sorry that you have to be at the receiving end of the stick, but I'm angry."

Judge Satchwell told the prisoners: "If judgments are not handed in, I will release you. Look at what the total disaster of this system has led you to.

"This is not right."