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Court gavel.
The Mankweng Magistrate’s Court in Limpopo has postponed the case of a former teacher accused of raping a 13-year-old learner to next Tuesday for a decision on his bail application.
The accused resigned from his position as a teacher after his arrest last month. He faces counts of rape and child sexual grooming.
The state and the defence closed their arguments on the bail application. The lawyer for the former teacher has told the court that public opinion should not be used to determine his client’s bail application.
Lawyer Michael Khumalo argues that the accused must be granted bail, and anyone who is not satisfied with the decision has the right to appeal the decision.
“The public will express its opinion but our decision here in court should be based on what the public opinion is court should be more inclined to granting bail not than to refusing bail at the end of this proceedings any party which is not happy with the decision of the court has an option to take the matter further by either an appeal or review,” Khumalo says.
Khumalo has also applied that the court can grant bail with strict conditions.
“Refusing bail is not an ultimate solution the state could have come and said look let’s grant bail at higher amount but let’s put conditions in place to put an eye on the applicant that is meeting the applicant half way the applicant has done so much your worship so much to compromise to meet the state halfway and what the state has done” Khumalo adds.
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The prosecution has argued that the accused has failed to establish exceptional circumstances to meet the requirements for his release on bail.
Prosecutor Joel Mamabolo says the accused must prove exceptional circumstances for his release on bail.
“If the accused is able to show that the case against him is non existent or is subjected to a serious doubt he would be succeeded in establishing expecptional circumstances from the personal circumstances of the accused there is nothing that appears to be exceptional the fact that the accused want to maintain his wife and children is not unusual and therefore is no exceptional,” Mamabolo says.
Mamabolo has also said that the accused can still be convicted without DNA evidence. “We are still going to get a conviction with or without DNA. Our plea is that the court should find that the state has a strong case against him and that it is unlikely that he will be acquitted during trial,” Mamabolo explains.
The accused has been a teacher for 34 years. He has been remanded in custody.
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