Johannesburg - The lawyer responsible for prosecuting the Waterkloof Four and Reitz Four has been brought in to assist in the case against three Featherbrooke Estate residents who assaulted a security guard stationed at the upmarket complex.
Last month, The Star reported on how the guard, who works for Fidelity Security, had been deployed to investigate a noise complaint at one of the homes, and how a vicious altercation ensued.
The residents of the house, now revealed to be Michael, Bjorn and Jason Hayes, allegedly attacked the guard, and it took other residents in the Krugersdorp complex to break up the initial fight.
When the security officer fled to the guardhouse, the group are alleged to have followed him and began beating him again. The second brutal attack was captured on CCTV cameras.
After the situation had calmed, an ambulance and paramedics were summoned to take the guard to a local hospital.
On Thursday, the Hayes trio appeared briefly in the Krugersdorp Magistrate’s Court.
It has emerged that Johan Kruger, a top criminal prosecutor, has been brought in to monitor and assist in the case.
Kruger was responsible for the prosecution of the Waterkloof Four, who were sentenced to 12 years in prison for beating, stabbing and kicking a homeless man to death in Pretoria in 2001.
He also prosecuted the four University of the Free State students - the Reitz Four - who humiliated black cleaners at the facility, forcing them to eat urine-covered meat.
The pseudo-initiation ceremony was filmed by the white students at the now-closed Reitz men’s residence. The video was made public and shocked the nation.
Kruger told The Star on Thursday that the reason the Featherbrooke case deserved such attention was because of a series of racial slurs allegedly directed at the guard by the accused.
“I am here to make sure the case doesn’t just disappear… This is another incident of the rich against the poor,” he said.
All three accused were granted R1 000 bail shortly after their arrest on February 26, with no formal bail application taking place.
The Star