‘Coffin assault’ duo fails in latest bid to get out of jail
Theo Jackson and Willem Oosthuizen‚ who were convicted in the coffin assault case‚ on Friday lost their bid in the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in Bloemfontein to get bail.
The two men had applied to be released on bail while they waited for the SCA to hear their leave to appeal applications. They filed for leave to appeal on October 27 last year and the SCA granted it on February 2.
“The applicants’ applications for leave to appeal the refusal by the [High Court] to grant bail is dismissed on the grounds that there are no reasonable prospects of success and there is no other compelling reason why an appeal should be heard‚” the court said.
The court added that it was also not in the interest of justice that the men be released. Counsel acting on behalf of the men conceded that race played a role in the case.
“It is sad‚ as this case and others in the public eye demonstrate‚ that we as a nation have reached this stage of racial polarisation and that we have not yet overcome the deep divisions that our history imposed on us. It is the very antithesis of our constitutional compact‚” the court said.
“We cannot ignore the fact that racial intolerance is something that can be exploited by those intent on undoing and subverting constitutional values. Racist behaviour is absolutely unacceptable and courts can rightly be expected to deal with it firmly.”
The application was heard on Monday by judges Mahomed Navsa and Nigel Willis and Acting Judge Ashton Schippers.
During the high court trial in October last year‚ Victor Mlotshwa had to relive the trauma Oosthuizen and Jackson had subjected him to in August 2016. The court found the pair guilty of attempted murder and assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm to not only Mlotshwa but to another man‚ Delton Sithole. They were further found guilty of intimidation and kidnapping.
Jackson and Oosthuizen told the court that they had confronted Mlotshwa after they found him in possession of stolen copper cables. They said he had threatened to burn their crops and harm their families should they take him to the police and they had put him in a coffin to scare him.
Mlotshwa said he had been hitch-hiking to town when he was attacked by Jackson and Oosthuizen. He said he had been beaten‚ cable-tied to the back of the two men’s bakkie and driven to a remote area‚ where he was forced into a coffin as he pleaded for his life.