Although the mother of murdered lesbian Zoliswa Nkonyana breathed a sigh of relief when four suspects accused of killing her daughter were recaptured, their escape compounded yet another blow to the murder trial yesterday, when it was delayed for almost four weeks.
The trial has had more than 20 postponements over four years, leading to protests by gender activists, who have accused the criminal justice system of being unwilling to see justice done in the case of a lesbian-hate murder.
The arrests brought relief to Nkonyana’s mother, Noxolo Mandindi, 42, who fled from her Khayelitsha home last week, fearing the men charged with the murder of her daughter.
“I’m fine now,” she told the Cape Times yesterday.
The case was postponed to October 14 after lawyers for three of the four escapers said they were not prepared to represent them without being paid. They had withdrawn from the case after the escapes.
Yesterday, they told regional court magistrate Raadiyah Wathen that they had reconsidered their decision, but they wanted the Legal Aid Board to pay them for appearing for the accused. Advocate Afzal Vallie would apparently ask the Legal Aid Board for R4 000 a day. The board pays R1 500.
Two others, advocate Neelan Ramsingh and attorney Zukisani Bobotyane, would settle for the usual payment.
The court heard that it would take time for the board to enrol the lawyers, and the case could not proceed until the problem of lawyers had been sorted out.
Magistrate Wathen postponed the case to allow the defence to source funds for the accused from the Legal Aid Board.
Gay advocacy group The Triangle Project this week said it was “unacceptable” that the trial had been allowed to drag on for four years.
The group lashed out at defence attorneys for showing unprofessional conduct by causing “innumerable” delays in the trial by arriving late or not at all on trial dates.
“We continue to demand that the court put in place sanctions for attorneys who derail the justice system,” The Triangle Project’s Jill Henderson said.
Lesbians and Treatment Action Campaign activists are expected to march to the provincial legislature to present their concerns about delays in the lesbian-murder trial tomorrow.
Nkonyana was attacked after she left a shebeen in Khayelitsha in February 2006.
Nine men have been charged with her murder and the attempted murder of her friend and a passerby. One is out on bail.
Four of the eight were rearrested on Sunday after escaping from the Khayelitsha Magistrate’s Court holding cells last Wednesday.