THE ANC Youth League in Plettenberg Bay has been given permission to stage a protest march to the town’s Magistrate’s Court this week to complain about the apparent lack of progress in the case against a man accused of dragging a petrol pump attendant next to his car.
Bitou chairman Thembela Mhlana said yesterday the Youth League was concerned about the “calamitous consequences” if Herman van Zyl, 26, was acquitted “because of negligence on the part of the state”.
The league believed the alleged crime was “racially motivated, brutal and inhuman, and reminds of the old apartheid days when Africans’ lives and dignity meant nothing and could be played with for amusement and entertainment purposes”.
Van Zyl faces a charge of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm for allegedly grabbing pump attendant Mike Ntwanambi, 26, by the collar and dragging him next to his car when he pulled off from the Shell Ultra City in Plettenberg Bay on October 26 last year.
The ANCYL said police had neglected to obtain a copy of the surveillance video which had captured the incident and which had since apparently been lost.
The state had also failed to call Ultra City owner Charles Roberts as a witness, even though he had viewed the video before it was misplaced, it said.
The criminal case has seen repeated postponements in the Plett Magistrate’s Court. On September 30, magistrate Len Goosen said he was granting a final postponement to November 12, when the case is expected to go to trial.
The ANCYL hopes to march to the court on Thursday to demand that senior investigating and prosecuting teams be appointed with immediate effect.
Source: The Herald Online
