St James massacre man in court

GCINIKHAYA Makoma once famously asked the nation for forgiveness for his involvement in the 1993 St James Church massacre.

He pulled the trigger of an automatic weapon, unleashing a hail of bullets into the congregation in Cape Town, on a mission against the apartheid government.

He was sentenced to 23 years for the murder of 11 people in the church and attempted murder of 58 others, but served just over five years.

He was granted amnesty for his role in the attack by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

But now the 34-year-old former Azanian Peoples Liberation Army cadre is in court for murder and being part of a cash-in-transit heist gang - while taxpayers foot his legal bills.

He is on trial at the High Court in Cape Town for attempting to rob an armoured cash van . He is being defended by Legal Aid South Africa - formerly known as the Legal Aid Board.

Makoma and his 10 co-accused are facing 13 charges, including five counts of attempted murder, and murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances.

During the foiled heist in Parow, Cape Town, on December 3, 2007, the gang was allegedly armed with hand guns, AK47's and R4 assault rifles.

Cash van driver Andile Selepe died in the attack. Gerald Samuels and Wonga Mrengqwa, the other two guards in the vehicle, were not seriously injured.

The heist gang sprayed bullets at a marked police car while fleeing the scene.

On the same day, before the heist, five members of the group allegedly hijacked a Toyota minibus taxi.

Police alleged that two weeks before they robbed the cash van, the group had stolen a white Ford Ranger bakkie at gunpoint and "inflicted grievous bodily harm" to the owner of the vehicle.

This week, a shackled Makoma and his co-accused listened as Alexander Dick, an investigator from the cash-in-transit security company G4S Security Services, described how the armoured windscreen of the cash van had been breeched.

Dick told Judge Pat Gamble that the van that the group robbed had made 18 cash collections before it was attacked.

In a bail application last year, it was alleged that Makoma had been involved with six others in the R1.8-million robbery of a Standard Bank cash van in 2002.

That case was thrown out of court due to a lack of evidence.

The case continues tomorrow.