By KEDIBONE MOLAETSI
The South African National Civic Organisation (SANCO) in the North West reacted with shock to the acquittal of two Coligny farmers, Pieter Doorewaard and Phillip Schutte who was previously found guilty of killing a teenager, Matlhomola Mosweu (16) after accusing him of stealing a sunflower heads back in 2017.
In March 2019, the North West High Court sitting in Mafikeng found Schutte and Doorewaard guilty of murder and sentenced them both to 23 and 18 years in jail respectively.
However, in November 2019, the duo took their matter to the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein and were granted R20 000 bail pending leave to appeal against their conviction and sentence.
On Friday, the Supreme Court of Appeal overturns convictions and sentences against them.
Now, the SANCO provincial chairperson, Paul Sebegoe said: “The civic organisation described the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) overruling the conviction of Doorewaard and Schutte as a probable miscarriage of justice.
“The ruling which effectively frees the alleged murderers convicted for Mosweu’s ghastly murder gives credence to the assertion that “black lives do not matter” and that there is seemingly no justice for the poorest of the poor who are facing worst atrocities in rural communities.”
Sebegoe further said the perceptions that perpetrators of violent crimes will walk scot-free, while victims are buried six-feet under will continue to haunt the historically marginalised until those responsible for the teenager’s gruesome murder are behind bars. He also expressed concern that the appeal ruling which was delivered in the wake of resurgence of racism will heighten racial tensions.
“This will undoubtedly reopen wounds that were beginning to heal in the hope that justice had been served,” he said.
Meanwhile, Civil rights organisation AfriForum, which funded the appeal case, has welcomed the acquittal, TimesLive reports.
“We are very thankful for the acquittal of Schutte and Doorewaard. AfriForum has said from the very beginning that the state’s only witness lied and, therefore, the organisation decided to finance the application for appeal.
“AfriForum has covered the full costs of the application for appeal because we believed in their innocence and today justice was served,” said Kallie Kriel, AfriForum CEO.
AfriForum had previously criticised the NPA’s failure to consider cellphone records which would have shown that the witness could have not seen what happened, given the distance away he was at the time of the incident.
The Guardian 