OMPHITLHETSE MOOKI

ON MARCH 31, 2010, national police commissioner Bheki Cele issued interim national instructions in terms of the Child Justice Act, which came into effect on April 1, 2010.

This was two days before Eugene Terre’Blanche was bludgeoned to death at his Witrandjiesfontein farm in Ventersdorp.

Among other things the interim instructions deal with is how police officers should handle child offenders when taking them to point out a crime scene.

When a child indicates to a police officer that he is willing to make a pointing-out, the officer should inform the child that:

l The pointing-out will be recorded and may be used as evidence against him in court. Investigating officer Lieutenant-Colonel Tsietsi Manotold the court that the teenager was informed of his rights.

l He is entitled to have a legal representative present at a pointing-out. The teenager had no legal representative at the scene of Terre’Blanche’s murder.

l At a pointing-out he is entitled to be assisted by a parent, a guardian or an appropriate adult. But the only adults present were police officers in the case,

The teenager’s lawyers contended in heads of argument submitted to Judge John Horn that the minor never indicated he wanted to take officers to the crime scene, but was taken there because the investigating officer wanted him to go.

This was in violation of the interim national instructions that the minor has to “indicate that he is willing to make a pointing-out”.