Cape Town - Defence lawyer Asghar Mia believes the reason the State is opposing bail in the case of three youngsters who are facing charges in connection with the theft of weapons from the SA Navy’s armament depot is because they have “egg on their face”.
Mia told the Simon’s Town Magistrate’s court that the State's case involved two or three unarmed young men who were alleged to have used bolt cutters to get through three heavily guarded security fences.
“It is to save face,” he said.
On Thursday the lawyers representing Duncan Gouvias, 21, Dillon Sewkumar, 18, and Karabo Ramakgopa, 19, presented their heads of argument to Magistrate Crystal McKenna, arguing for their clients to be released on bail.
Mia, for Ramakgopa, an electrical engineering student, said his client’s case differed substantially from those of the other accused because he was facing only charges of possession of prohibited firearms.
Sewkumar and Gouvias have been charged with housebreaking, theft, possession of prohibited firearms and contravening the Explosives Act.
Andre Johnston, for Gouvias, said although the case against his client should be considered serious, it wasn’t shocking. “The most heinous crime is murder,” Johnston said.
“Those crimes happen every day, yet the media focuses on an alleged break-in.”
Johnston also queried why the State had not opposed bail in the case against President Jacob Zuma.
“It’s because he is powerful,” he suggested. “Yet they arrest an adolescent boy and hold him in custody.”
During a break in proceedings, Gouvias lifted his shirt several times to show bites he claimed were from bed bugs at Pollsmoor Prison.
The three blew kisses to their loved ones in the gallery.
Earlier, after a request from McKenna for more details about the young men’s arrests, prosecutor Nico Breyl said the Hawks had received a tip-off from an informant that people were wanting to sell hand grenades.
They had instructed the informant to make arrangements to meet the person, but no one had pitched up.
They had, however, spotted the car the expected sellers were going to be in - an Audi - which they followed.
Police later found Sewkumar and Gouvias in the vehicle with a bag of hand grenades. They were both arrested and indicated they would point out where the rest of the weapons were.
Breyl said they had gone to Gouvias’s house and found three Uzi machine guns under the bed. They then went to the home of Ramakgopa, who took them to his girlfriend’s house nearby in Da Gama Park. That was where they found the fourth gun.
McKenna postponed proceedings to Friday when Breyl will present his heads of argument.
Cape Argus