PRETORIA – Three of the five men accused of assaulting a black couple — Jacob and Dudu Sono — at a KFC drive-through were denied bail in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.

Magistrate Motlhoki Rapulana remanded Stephen Nel, 39, Joshua Scholtz, 21, and 21-year-old Dicky Junior van Rooyen, citing the seriousness of the charges they faced and the public outcry that followed the much-publicised attack at a KFC drive-through in Pretoria north earlier this month.

“There is a likelihood that, if released on bail, the applicants will interfere with ongoing police investigations. It’s a likelihood that they will tamper with the investigation and the evidence,” Rapulana said delivering her judgment on the trio’s bail application in a packed courtroom.

“It is a possibility that releasing the applicants on bail will cause a public outcry. The public will not have confidence in the justice system if the applicants are to be released on bail. I therefore have found that it is not in the interest of justice to release the applicants on bail.”

The matter will return to court on 14 September.

Nel, Scholtz and Van Rooyen are charged, together with 23-year-old Marius Harding and 20-year-old Ockert Muller.

READ: KFC assault suspects linked to similar attacks

Harding previously abandoned his bail application. He remains in police custody and was not in court on Wednesday.

Muller was previously granted R5,000 bail. His bail conditions were extended.

The five are charged with attempted murder, assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm, and pointing a firearm.

Two police officers acting as state witnesses previously testified that the five had acted in common purpose and that the attack was racially motivated.

The attack was captured as a cellphone video and the clip went viral on social media.

The public outcry led to the arrest of the five men.

A small group of ANC Women’s League members celebrated outside the court soon after the proceedings ended before 6pm, singing and dancing.

Reacting to the court ruling, National Prosecuting Authority’s spokesperson Luv yo Mfaku said cases with racial undertones were closely monitored.

“We believe that this decision [denial of bail] is in the interests of justice, in terms of ensuring that all the matters that are allegedly racially motivated are actually addressed by the state to ensure that they do not derail our social cohesion,” said Mfaku.

The ruling was not a punishment of the accused men but would send a strong message to “would-be attackers whether on racial or any other grounds”, he said.

African News Agency

JOHANNESBURG – Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma on Tuesday dismissed criticism that her bid to succeed President Jacob Zuma in office is a strategy to protect him from criminal prosecution.

Dlamini-Zuma, the former chief of the African Union, is a leading candidate to replace Zuma as head of the ruling ANC party in December and then as national president within two years.

President Zuma is widely seen as favouring Dlamini-Zuma, with whom he has four children, ahead of Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa in the race that could split the African National Congress (ANC).

Dlamini-Zuma told AFP that she found it “offensive” to be seen as her ex-husband’s chosen candidate to shield him from the courts when he leaves office.

“I will not be elected by President Jacob Zuma,” she said after delivering a speech in Johannesburg.

“If I am elected, I will be elected by South Africans, and they will have reasons why they elect me — and that is why I find it offensive.”

READ: Candidates should accept outcome of ANC elective conference: Dlamini-Zuma

Dlamini-Zuma (68), a former health minister, has not publicly declared her candidacy in the ANC leadership battle.

But she has campaigned across the country in recent weeks, drumming up support ahead of the party conference in December where delegates will elect their new leader.

President Zuma, who completes his final term in power in 2019, faces multiple court cases including almost 800 corruption charges that may be reinstated over a multi-billion dollar arms deal in the 1990s.

– Anti-apartheid veteran –

“She is seen as one of the main contenders to take over from her ex-husband,” the Institute of Security Studies think-tank said when she left the African Union position.

“It is alleged that she will protect Zuma and family members from prosecution for corruption if she becomes president.”

In her address to the Gordon Institute of Business Science, Dlamini-Zuma painted a stark picture of South Africa’s challenges.

“The majority of our people remain landless, and the economy is stagnant, de-industrialising and dominated by monopolies which are predominantly both white and male,” she said.

“A large number of people still live under conditions of squalor. And there are unacceptable levels of corruption both in public and private sector… the status quo is dangerous to all of us.”

Dlamini-Zuma added that if she became president, she would hope to leave a legacy of boosting education and skills.

“If you have skilled work people, they figure out what to do with the minerals, where to get the finances, they figure out most things,” she said.

A divisive succession battle between Dlamini-Zuma and wealthy former businessman Ramaphosa could lead to the ANC losing power in 2019 for the first time since it won the 1994 election under Nelson Mandela.

AFP

Samkelo Mabaso* was raped by a stranger in Nelspruit, but when he told his friends they laughed at him so he decided not to report the rape.

“I still remember that horrible night like it was just yesterday,” said Mabaso, 26, who was walking home at around 7pm. “In front of me, there were two ladies and behind me, a man. Those ladies took a turn and I continued on the same road and the man followed me.

Needed support and advice

“As I was about to take a left turn, the man hit the back of my head.  I woke up in an abandoned house. He was on top of me and he took his penis and put it between my thighs. Then he turned me over and with force, he raped me,” said Mabaso.

The following morning, Mabaso opened up to a group of his friends because he needed their support and advice

“But instead of comforting me, they laughed at me,” said Mabaso. “One of my friends said: ‘What, are you gay now?’ I just said ‘I’m not gay, I was raped’. But at that moment I knew that disclosing the event and opening a case would be a waste of time because, if my friends thought it was a joke, other people would probably also make fun of me.”

Without support, understanding and advice from friends, Mabaso decided to keep quiet and deal with the trauma by himself because of the fear of being judged. But he soon realised that he was in needed of help and spoke to Andrew Langa, a lay preacher at his church.   

“Rape is a sensitive issue and traumatic event to someone. Mabaso tried opening up but after being laughed at, he stopped disclosing the rape and he never got post-exposure prophylaxis that may have protected him from HIV,” said Langa.

Wrong response

If an HIV negative person has been raped, they can take a course of antiretroviral medicine within 72 hours of the rape and this – known as post exposure prophylaxis (PEP) – protects them against HIV infection.

Mabaso has not reported the rape yet, but Langa hope that, “with time and counselling he will do so”.

Meanwhile, one of Mabaso’s friends has since realised that their response was wrong: “When Samkelo first told us, we honestly thought it was a joke because he always jokes but we soon realised it wasn’t when he stopped socialising with us,” said the friend who cannot be named to protect Samkelo’s real identity.

“On behalf of my friends I would like to apologise to him because, by laughing at him and not trusting him, it feels like we have let him down.”

The South African Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse (www.samsosa.org) was set up to offer support to male victims of rape. Rees Mann, founder of SAMSOSA, says that 19.4% of all victims of sexual abuse in 2012 were male victims.

No support systems in SA

“One in five adult males are the victims in sexual offences and this figure could be much higher as a male is 10 times less likely to report a sexual violation than a woman. This could mean that South Africa could have the highest number of adult male victims in the world,” said Mann, himself a survivor of rape and sexual abuse.

“It is because of this that SAMSOSA, launched in September, serves as a resource and referral centre, providing information, support and training for victims, affected individuals and organisations in a safe, non-judgemental environment.

Mann says he realised, after his own experiences of abuse, that there were no support systems in South Africa for males: “Disclosing your sexual abuse encounter can be an extremely difficult thing to do. Choosing the right person to share your story about what happened to you can really make things easier, allowing you to feel a lot better about yourself and your situation,” he explains.

He adds that victims need to understand that what has happened to them is not their fault and that people from all walks of life can be affected by sexual abuse, including men. “There needs to be a dialogue and a safe space for men to confront these experiences and come to terms with the fact that they are not to blame.” – Health-e News.

^{Image credit: iStock}

^{*Not his real name}