A Johannesburg magistrate presiding over the murder trial of a man arrested after the decomposing bodies of six women believed to be sex workers were found last week, slammed the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) for being ill-prepared and for a “failure to conduct groundwork” on time.

The NPA on Tuesday admitted it had erred, but maintained it had a plan in place to rectify this.

Magistrate Betty Khumalo, at the Johannesburg Magistrates’ Court, was visibly irked by the prosecution’s failure to bring into court an application to have the 20-year-old suspect, who is being held at the Johannesburg Prison, moved to the Johannesburg Central police station where an identity parade is to be held.

“Why is the investigating officer not having the letter ready before court? You have not done your groundwork. You have had seven days to draft that letter and get it ready for today,” Khumalo said.

Courtroom number 10 was packed as proceedings got under way. The suspect, charged with one count of murder, made his way to the dock with his face fully covered as the crowd hurled insults at him.

He was expected to make a formal bail application, but could not do so as an identity parade had not taken place. In a previous court appearance, the State had asked for a week’s postponement to hold the identity parade and conduct further investigations.

Explaining the delay in conducting the identity parade, the State prosecutor, Tshepo Mahange kaMsizi, said the accused had refused to take part in the process because of the absence of his lawyer. However, this was rebutted by the defence attorney, Khanyiswa Mkhabe.

“The accused did not refuse to do the identity parade. He availed himself for the identity parade on Friday, and the State shifted it to Sunday. On arrival at the police station, he was told that the person who was supposed to conduct it was not present and had gone to church,” Mkhabe said.

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NPA spokesperson Phindi Mjonondwana gave another version of events.

“The information that we got from the investigating officer is that, yes the person had made an arrangement to go to church, but by the time the ID parade was to be held, the person was present. The accused person is the one that said that he cannot participate in the ID parade unless his legal representative is present.”

Mjonondwana admitted that the NPA could have been better prepared for the matter after the initial postponement.

“We could have been better prepared, the prosecutor as well, could have spoken to the investigating officer before the court starts so that when we go to court we are prepared. We know the process that must be followed for an accused person to be held in the police holding cells.

“I must also indicate that it is such things that do not bolster well with the confidence that the public is supposed to have in us … we have erred and we are in a position to correct those mistakes.”

After a letter was presented in court following a brief adjournment and a request to hold the identity parade on October 21, the magistrate agreed to postpone the matter to 25 October.

Identification of bodies 

More than a week after the six bodies were discovered, they are yet to be positively identified.

Mjonondwana said: “At this stage, we don’t have any of the deceased persons that have been identified positively. We are awaiting the test results, and once they have been identified by their family members and once we have the go-ahead, as well from the family members, we will be in a position to reveal [their identities].”

Sisonke, a national sex workers movement,  told Daily Maverick that it was able to positively identify the bodies of four of the dead women.

Read more in Daily Maverick: “Murder of six women in Joburg exposes safety hazards for sex workers in SA”

Charges 

While the six bodies were found in close proximity to one another, Mjonondwana said that at present, the accused faced only one count of premeditated murder.

“We are currently charging the accused person with one count of murder; however, we have given instructions for investigations that must be conducted by the investigating officer, and once those investigations are concluded, we will be in a better position to state finally how many charges will be preferred against the accused person,” she said.

The NPA said it was confident it had a strong case.

Research from the Africa Criminal Justice Reform in March accused the NPA of pursuing easy-win cases at the expense of more complex prosecutions that could bring down its misleadingly high conviction rates.

Read more in Daily Maverick: “Why the NPA is misfiring on high-profile corruption cases”

The research also pointed to  concerning trends in the NPA’s performance, including:

• A decline in “overall throughput” (the number of cases in which a suspect is arrested, brought to trial, prosecuted and successfully convicted);
• A reliance on guilty pleas;
• A reliance on minor offences (particularly drug-related) to beef up the numbers; and
• Many cases are processed through unregulated alternative dispute resolution mechanisms (for instance, when someone accused of assault agrees to pay the victim compensation to avoid a trial). DM