Dear Cape Town
The inevitable outcome of the 300% backlog at the SAPS Forensic Science laboratories, played out in real life today when the five accused of the murders of three members of the Brand family, were sent back to languish in jail until December. The prosecutor actually asked that it be delayed until January, but the Defence insisted that the matter be heard on the 10th December.
The trial of these horrendous farm murders that rocked Hartswater was postponed yet again today because of the delays.
DA Northern Cape Court Watching Brief Provincial Head, Willie Aucamp MP, and DA Northern Cape MPL, Reinette Liebenberg, were there to support members of the Brand family, and to observe proceedings.
The DA will now push those in charge of the laboratories to expedite the testing. Indeed these tests should not take more than 48 hours to complete, yet the accused are waiting, and the families are waiting, , and indeed the whole community is waiting, as if frozen in time, while the R105.4 billion SAPS budget seemingly comes to nothing.
Three members of the Brand family were kidnapped at gunpoint from their smallholding in the Northern Cape.
Danie (83) and Breggie (79) Brand, retired farmers, as well as their visiting daughter Elzabie (50), were attacked on their farm at Magogong-plots in Hartswater, Northern Cape in July. It was only the following day, after repeated calls, that their house was visited, and the alarm raised.
One of their two stolen vehicles was found abandoned at Majaneng Village, Taung, and road checks saw the police chase and apprehend the second vehicle with three occupants, a female and two men. A fourth suspect was apprehended the following morning, and a fifth was soon to follow. The daughter’s body was the first to be found, but hopes that the parents may be alive were dashed when their bodies were found in shallow graves some distance away.
The surrounding community is still reeling in shock at this evil crime.
This is exactly the sort of attack the DA has been insisting the Government take seriously, despite the President claiming that no farmers are being killed in South Africa.
Just before these murders, the DA launched a 16-point plan to focus on rural attacks on farms and small holdings, which have seen the terrible murders of farmers, farm workers, their wives, parents and children, as well as visitors to farms. The result has been a clear focus on rural safety, with, for example, a Debate of National Importance, the establishment of the Provincial Court Watching Briefs, the SAHRC is focussing on the vicious social media posts celebrating these and other heinous rural attacks, and a promise of the reestablishment of Rural Safety Units. The Court Watching Briefs have been rolled out in every province, and the DA is actively overseeing these cases in order to minimise delays.
Tomorrow my colleagues in the National Assembly will begin putting pressure on the head of the Forensic Laboratories, so that the court case is fully informed when it sits again in December.
Regards
Willie Aucamp MP
DA Member of the National Council of Provinces
