Johannesburg - Petrus Willem Johannes Durant, the jailed murderer of a Krugersdorp farmworker, is engaged in a fiery fight to ensure he does not spend a day further in prison.
A lanky figure, Durant shed tears and murmured disapproval in the dock at the South Gauteng High Court after his leave for appeal application was dismissed on Friday. The high court was sitting in the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court.
But just after Judge Ramarumo Monama delivered his scathing ruling it emerged that Durant still sought to be released on bail. His bail would have almost been a done deal had Judge Monama granted leave to appeal.
In an unusual move, the security company owner will bring a bail application ahead of petitioning the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) to hear his appeal.
“We’ve been instructed to bring a bail application pending the leave to appeal application,” Durant’s attorney, Dian Oosthuizen, told The Star. “We’ll do the bail application before that (petitioning the SCA). The matter is now going to the SCA for leave to appeal. We think that another court will find differently.”
Durant wanted his conviction for murder of tractor driver Aaron Mutavhatsindi and subsequent 20-year sentence set aside. He shot Mutavhatsindi in the head in Matshelapata, an informal community near Krugersdorp, during a high-speed chase. Mutavhatsindi was chased as he drove his work tractor to his shack.
It was common cause that he had taken the tractor without permission from employers at Bartlett’s eggs farm. The farm set Durant, who owned the company contracted for the farm’s security, on Mutavhatsindi.
Photos of the dead Mutavhatsindi slouched in the driver’s seat of a blue tractor started circulating on social media hours after his fatal shooting on January 6, 2018.
On Friday, Judge Monama shot down Durant’s argument that he had prospects of convincing the appeals court that he killed Mutavhatsindi lawfully.
Durant’s advocate, Sita Kolbe SC, told Judge Monama during the hearing that Mutavhatsindi was killed lawfully.
Durant decided to shoot him because he drove the tractor recklessly and posed a danger to residents of the informal community, Matshelapata, said Kolbe. She said the judge erred by rejecting evidence that Mutavhatsindi endangered human lives, drove through a funeral procession and caused damage to structures.
Kolbe said her client maintained that after witnessing this mayhem, he shot Mutavhatsindi just as he was about to knock down two women in Matshelapata. But then why would Matshelapata residents be so aggrieved about his action? Prosecutor Carla Britz posed this question, as the State opposed the leave to appeal application.
In his Friday judgment, Judge Monama stressed that he convicted and sentenced Durant based on the totality of evidence that came before him during trial.
The Star