The Tiyani Magistrate’s Court in Limpopo has postponed the case of six people who allegedly burnt down a house and three luxury vehicles at Blinkwater, near Giyani, last month.
During their previous appearance, the matter was postponed in order to secure an Amharic language interpreter, as five of the accused are Ethiopian while the sixth is South African.
The accused allegedly torched Seth Baloyi’s property. Police say it was in retaliation for the killing of an Ethiopian shopkeeper.
The group suspected Baloyi of being responsible for the shopkeeper’s death.
Baloyi’s lawyer Advocate Jeffrey Maluleke explains, “During the arson, clothing and study material of the school going kids were also burned. Children as they will be returning back to school on Monday, they will obviously be on the backfoot. Their school learning material will not be secured, we still have to communicate with the teachers and the principals, school authorities to make sure that they are provided with new materials to make up for the material lost in the fire.”
Meanwhile, the lawyer of the six accused, Moses Zitha, says the state is deliberately delaying the matter. “State is engaging in some tactics of delaying this bail application because they realised they don’t have a case against my clients. Taking this postponement, in fact, is just that we, however, have to put that it is not a situation we are happy with.”
