Winnie: Third attempt to charge cops

The NPA is planning to exhume what may be the bodies of two young men connected to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela in 1987. File photo: Sizwe Ndingane.

The NPA is planning to exhume what may be the bodies of two young men connected to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela in 1987. File photo: Sizwe Ndingane.

Published Nov 7, 2012

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Johannesburg - Criminal charges have been brought for a third time against two policemen who were involved in an altercation with Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and her bodyguards two years ago, it was reported on Wednesday.

Warrant Officer Jannie Odendaal and Constable Abel Twala appeared in the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court on Tuesday on charges of intimidation and pointing a firearm, Beeld reported. Twala was also charged with assault.

They stopped Madikizela-Mandela's vehicle on December 30, 2010, when they saw the driver weaving through traffic.

Madikizela-Mandela's bodyguard Jacob Olebile Monare laid criminal charges against the policemen, alleging that they had used abusive language and brandished a weapon in a threatening manner.

Odendaal and Twala laid a counter-charge of subverting the law against Madikizela-Mandela at the Brooklyn police station, in Pretoria.

They laid separate charges of assault and reckless driving against her driver and Monare, but these were later dropped.

Odendaal and Twala were fired, pending the outcome of a disciplinary hearing.

National Prosecuting Authority spokeswoman Phindi Louw told the Beeld on Tuesday that the charges against the policemen had been reinstated.

She said correct procedures were not followed when the charges were withdrawn for a second time in August.

The charges were withdrawn for the first time in September 2011, because the State prosecutor was not prepared to prosecute.

Louw told the newspaper a court could recommend that charges be withdrawn, but that the decision had to be made by the Director of Public Prosecutions, and this had not been done.

Odendaal and Twala would appear again in court later this month. - Sapa

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