Jub Jub keeps on fighting

Molemo 'Jub Jub' Maarohanye at court last year. File photo: Boxer Ngwenya

Molemo 'Jub Jub' Maarohanye at court last year. File photo: Boxer Ngwenya

Published Nov 27, 2013

Share

Johannesburg -

Despite being sentenced to 25 years in jail, Molemo “Jub Jub” Maarohanye is still trying to convince the courts he should be allowed out on bail.

On Tuesday, his legal team pleaded his case in the Johannesburg High Court, arguing the former hip-hop star should be granted bail pending his appeal against his conviction. Just over a month ago, a magistrate in the Protea Magistrate’s Court denied Maarohanye’s application for bail.

Maarohanye and his co-accused Themba Tshabalala were each sentenced in December last year to 20 years’ imprisonment for murder and four for attempted murder.

For use of drugs, driving under the influence of drugs and racing on a public road, they got a year on each count.

Maarohanye and Tshabalala were drag-racing in Protea North, Soweto, on March 8, 2010 when they crashed into a group of schoolboys, killing four and leaving two with permanent brain damage.

Maarohanye and his co-accused were granted leave to appeal their sentences in July.

Maarohanye’s legal representative, advocate Willie Vermeulen SC, argued at the appeal that there was a significant chance that Maarohanye’s charges would be reduced to culpable homicide, for which there was the possibility of no jail time.

“Why should he stay in jail if he may get a non-custodial sentence?” said Vermeulen.

He also argued that the date had not yet been laid down for Maarohanye’s appeal and thus he could unnecessarily be in jail for some time. He said the facts of the case, for example Maarohanye’s drug use, would need to be reassessed in the appeal. He added that Maarohanye was not a flight risk.

Key to Vermeulen’s argument was the Humphreys case, where the Supreme Court of Appeal overturned the conviction of Western Cape taxi driver Jacob Humphreys, who was originally found guilty of the murder of 10 children and the attempted murder of four others when he tried to cross a railway track on August 25, 2010, when his taxi was hit by a train. He received eight years for culpable homicide after his appeal.

However, Judge Natvarlal Ranchod warned Vermeulen against assuming the Humphreys case was more dangerous than Maarohanye’s case.

Prosecutor Raymond Mathenjwa argued that Maarohanye was a flight risk as he had asked the investigating officer for his passport during his trial so he could travel to various African countries.

Mathenjwa argued that, given the circumstances of the case, even a dramatic reduction of sentence would not result in Maarohanye receiving no jail time, and any time he served while waiting for his appeal would count towards his final sentence.

Judgment was reserved for Thursday.

[email protected]

The Star

Related Topics: