Olorato Mongale’s killers were released on bail, despite previous cases. A broken justice system failed her and countless others in South Africa.
Just over a month ago, the two people who became the main suspects in the murder case that became a national focus point were arrested for kidnapping and robbing a woman in Brakpan on the East Rand.
On 26 April they were released on bail. Nothing strange there.
Everyone who appears in court suspected of committing a crime is entitled to bail, unless there are conditions that make the presiding magistrate believe they will not return to court to face justice, or that they are a threat to the public or witnesses in the case they are facing.
The two suspects in the murder of Free State woman Olorato Mongale were facing similar charges in other cases, yet they were released on bail. And the country is shocked that they did exactly what they were accused of doing in a previous case.
There is no logic or sense to this kind of application of the law.
It is time South Africa faced the reality that Mongale was murdered by men who were let loose by institutions tasked with protecting her.
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It might sound alarmist, but even a cursory glance at the case shows that the police, the courts and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) let Philangenkosi Sibongokuhle Makhanya and Bongani Mthimkhulu out on bail in April.
What is sad is that even as Mongale’s family desperately searches for closure that might never come because one of the suspects was shot dead in confrontation with the police, all arms of the a criminal justice system can each give what they think are acceptable reasons for letting the suspects go.
And the public must just accept those reasons.
The system, the whole system, not just the NPA, is broken. It has become fashionable to just heap all the blame on the NPA in cases where the system fails to deliver justice for citizens. But the truth is that the NPA is just one of the cogs in the system.
The police must arrest the suspects and investigate if such suspects are deserving of bail.
They must look at establishing whether the suspect has a stable address. Makhanya and Mthimkhulu being arrested for robbery and kidnapping in Brakpan using a vehicle whose owner resides in KwaZulu-Natal should set the alarm bells off.
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Establishing car ownership and verifying addresses should be the easiest part of policing. Yet cops fail to do this regularly.
Part of the reason they fail is that, unlike in the movies, South African cops do not have a computer screen on their desks. In the era of artificial intelligence, cops in this country are not always online. They must schedule time in front of a computer to do a basic identity search on a suspect.
They operate in offices equipped with just a desk for their physical docket which, for the right price, can be made to disappear. And dangerous suspects are set loose to terrorise vulnerable communities.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government, from Police Minister Senzo Mchunu all the way down to that unnamed prosecutor in Brakpan, must take responsibility for what happened to Mongale.
The country must stop calling it an “NPA bungle” and lay the blame on all the institutions and people responsible for the death of any woman, man or child at the hands of a person who should not be walking the streets.
Yes, men kill women and that should be acknowledged, but the government and all its institutions allow it to happen. Mongale would be alive if the government had protected her.
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