By Lavern de Vries
The man believed to be the Station Strangler is not yet off the hook, as the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) may still decide to prosecute him for the deaths of six boys.
On Monday the Mitchells Plain magistrate's court found that, although there was prima facie evidence that Norman "Afzal" Simons was involved in the deaths of the boys, too much time had elapsed since the killings to secure a conviction.
However, National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Sandy Godlwana said on Tuesday that the DPP would take into account the time that had elapsed but would still need to study the judgment before a decision was made on whether to prosecute Simons.
"The strength and/or weakness of the matter can only properly be determined after the judgment has been scrutinised," she said. The time lapse of 14 years would certainly be taken into account.
Godlwana said that "the interests of justice in making such a determination" would be considered.
Fourteen years ago a serial killer stalked the Mitchells Plain area and abducted young boys - normally at or around railway stations - and raped them before dumping their bodies in bushes in the area.
The bodies of 22 boys were found and in many cases their feet and hands were bound, while some of them had items of clothing wrapped around their necks - indicating that they had been strangled.
Although Simons, a former school teacher, was never arrested in connection with an estimated 23 deaths, he was arrested and convicted of the murder of 13-year-old Elroy van Rooyen.
At the time he signed a confession saying that he had raped and killed the boys because he had been raped by his older brother.
Simons, who was 27 at the time of his arrest, said in the confession that after his brother's murder he had heard a voice telling him to rape and kill the boys.
During Monday's court proceedings, Magistrate Marelize Boller closed a lengthy inquest into the deaths of six of the murdered boys - Fabian Willmore, Owen Hofmeester, Marcelino Cupido, Donovan Swartz, Elino Sprinkle and an unknown boy, all believed to be victims of a serial killer. The boys had been between the ages of eight and 14.
Taking into account Simons's confession, the fact that witnesses had seen him with at least two of the victims in his car and the fact that he could point out the vicinity in which the boys' bodies were found, Boller found that there was prima facie evidence against Simons, but questioned whether the State could secure a conviction.
The ruling outraged some family members, including the father of a boy whose body has not yet been found.
Reginald Heslop believed that his son, Jason, was a victim of Simons as Simons had at the time of his interrogation and arrest, spoken of a boy named Jason whose body was not found.