Chris Steyn (00:00.963)

The Private Prosecution Unit of AfriForum has taken up a number of cold cases in which the police have failed to trace or arrest or re-arrest known suspects. With me is the unit's Barry Bateman. Welcome Barry.

Barry (00:16.91)

Thanks so much, Chris. Always a pleasure.

Chris Steyn (00:18.735)

If you don't mind, I'll take you through some of those cases I've noted down for. May we start with Wierdabrug, please.

Barry (00:28.364)

Yeah, thanks Chris. I think let's just set the scene for that then. I think it's an important discussion we're having this week. All these cases we're going to discuss here are Gender-Based Violence cases. And we've had the President this week making that big announcement, big plans to do all sorts of things. And so basically what we'll discuss in this discussion is our experience with the police and the authorities when it comes to Gender-Based Violence.

Now, that first case that you referred to is a Wierdabrug matter, and it's assault G.B.H. or it's actually, no, my apologies, it's an attempted murder case. And here we have a case where a partner or an estranged partner of a woman had actually waited outside her house on a morning. And as she was leaving for work, he pulled out of a car, used a screwdriver and stabbed her multiple times in the legs. He fled the scene, she was taken to hospital and the police subsequently arrested the man.

His name is Gregory Kleynhans and he appeared in court several times and then he absconded and he hasn't been since then. Now significant information has been provided to the police and from people very close to Mr. Kleynhans on his location where he might be working and so on.

But we've had a response and something in our discussion I'll refer to you specifically we've had responses from the SAPS. I've got it around just somewhere here it is yeah we have got from the Acting National Police Commissioner. So we've sent questions on all of these cases we're going to discuss. And you'll pick up, there's a specific term that is used in each one of them. And you'll see what I'm talking about.

So we asked them, why has this man not been arrested? This is a 2022 case, the Wierdabrug matter. And you'll see that it says, the investigating officer has tried several times without any success. This is to locate. The suspect was circulated. Now remember that term. The suspect was circulated and the docket was handed over to a Tracing Unit. Information we received that the suspect was around Benoni. The suspect was traced to that area without any success. There are continuous efforts from members of the AFIS and WANTED to trace the suspect.

That's as far as we are at the situation. We've handed over information just two months ago as well, new information of where this man can be located. And that's the end of it.

Chris Steyn (02:51.47)

Does this mean that AfriForum will soon have to establish a Track and Trace Unit, Barry, by the sounds of it?

Barry (02:57.954)

What prosecution units, tracing units? Well, you laugh about that. We actually assisted the police affecting an arrest in a fraud matter a couple of weeks ago, but that's a discussion for another day.

Chris Steyn (03:08.942)

OK, let's talk about the Cleveland case, please.

Barry (03:12.628)

Arguably one of the most serious cases we're dealing with. And if we're to go to what sparked off the President's big announcement this week, this speaks directly to it. And this is a rape and attempted murder, but those two crimes committed a week apart.

It is a man by the name of Mbongiseni Welkom Zwane, and he raped his girlfriend. I think they'd just broken up at the time. And this was in July, 2021. He had caught her in a quiet area outside near a field and he had raped her. No, let me correct that. He had actually taken her to a guest house and he had held her captive there and he had raped her. She reported the matter. He went on the run. A week later, he returned and he shot her in the head with a firearm in an attempt to murder her and she survived and he went on the run.

She remains to this day in hiding because the police haven't managed to locate him. Now the response we got from the SAPS in their efforts to try and locate this man is that the vehicle, the suspect’s vehicle was, and here's his term again, circulated and recovered in Newcastle as the driver of the vehicle was then the younger brother.

It goes on to deal with a murder matter and the Acting National Commissioner says to us, the suspect is still being circulated until he is arrested. Again, you've got that term and the way we've worked out it is when they tell you it's circulated and it's given over to the Tracing Unit, it's basically saying, it's not my problem. It's a detective moving that thing off his desk and it just disappears. This is a 2021 case. That man is still out there.

And in our correspondence to the Acting National Commissioner, we raised the point that for five years now, you've got a man who raped a woman, came back a week later and tried to murder her, and he's been on the run since then. This is somebody who I would say has the potential to continue doing that. So we asked the questions and the National Commissioner simply says that we traced the vehicle, the stolen vehicle, and that's the end of it.

Barry (05:28.61)

Well, we ask very important questions and we don't get these details. How did the suspect's brother come into possession of the vehicle? When last did the brother see or communicate with his brother? Was his communication investigated? What about his parents? What further steps were taken to establish his whereabouts? Because you've got this connection through the brother, who is a family member. What was done to further trace him? And we don't have those answers.

But what we do know is that a suspected attempted murder and rapist is on the loose and he has been for five years.

Chris Steyn (06:03.247)

And the victim has to stay in hiding. All those years.

Barry (06:05.409)

That's the thing about this. And she has gone into hiding, fearing for her life. And we were actually approached by her former employer of hers many years ago…because he was worried about her and he was the one who reached out and we assisted her.

But that's the big tragedy of it. We talk about this week, we tell you women need to go safely out and all the rest of it. Here's somebody who remains in hiding for the last five years because the attacker remains on the loose.

Chris Steyn (06:38.413)

Let's go to Garsfontein.

Barry (06:41.515)

Yeah, another, and this is a straightforward case. It happened in a coffee shop, an elderly woman, she owns the coffee shop, and she had recently employed a youngster (Lethabo Mokhatshane) and there was a disagreement in the coffee shop, and this is all on surveillance footage, and this guy turned around and smacked her in the head. He then took, he hit her down to the ground, and eventually, he left the place, came back, you know, everyone will be familiar, everyone loves their coffee these days. You go to a barista, you know that thing they put the coffee in, you hook it in and you fill it up, he grabbed that and he threw it at her head. And he then left.

Now, the police have had this man's address. Everything has been provided to them to go and locate this man. Even the video footage, the police haven't come to collect this.

And again, and I'll read what the police say to us. They simply say the matter is still an investigation. This is from October last year. He was traced to his last known address, but he was not found. According to the girl found at the address, the suspect was currently in the Diepsloot area, but his location is currently not known. The investigation continues.

We know and told the police another employee at the coffee shop knows and sees the suspect regularly. The police haven't followed that up. In fact, somebody else, or think it was actually the suspect, sorry, let me correct myself there, I've got this information. The suspect actually rocked up one day at the coffee shop demanding his UIF certificate so he could start claiming UIF, but the police haven't been able to locate him.

Again, a very straightforward case, Gender-Based Violence, a young man attacking an elderly woman. And we're talking, it's an October case last year, we're talking a year now and the man's still in the area

Chris Steyn (08:28.865)

…and returning to the scene of a crime for a UIF. Surely, he can be traced through that.

Barry (08:31.562)

Exactly.

Barry (08:36.319)

Well, the other employee who still works there would be able to tell the police exactly where he is because he sees him regularly and they haven't done that. They haven't come to collect the video footage of the crime being committed.

Chris Steyn (08:49.315)

And if he goes to collect UIF, I mean, surely they can be waiting for him.

And then there is the case in Brakpan.

Barry (08:52.097)

Well, there's another thing. You're quite right. You're quite right.

Barry (08:59.787)

Yeah, again, if we look at Cleveland, one of the more serious cases, this is another one. This is a case of a netball coach who raped one of the girls that was in his care. He was and this man's name is Thulasizwe Mkhize and he's on the run as well so we can identify him and everything. He's been on the run.

This is a 14 July 2022 case and he appeared in court. He was granted bail in February 2023. There were a few postponements. But then on the 15th of July 2024, he just failed to appear in court. Eventually, a warrant of arrest was issued.

And here, listen to this term. On the 24th of November, we started the circulation process. The accused was circulated and WANTED with circulation number so and so. The accused…it was circulated as wanted, and the case was closed. So here we got a man who allegedly raped a child that was in his care. He absconded from court, he skipped bail, and he's now been circulated. That's the word that's been moved across to this Tracing Unit, and that's the end of that matter.

Again, another absolute failure by the authorities to do their jobs. And we're looking at another very serious case, this time against a child. And it just beggars belief that the police can just throw up their hands and accept that docket once it's off the detective's desk is now somebody else's problem.

Chris Steyn (10:32.143)

So does circulated mean passed onto the Track and Tracing Unit?

Barry (10:37.101)

Well, my understanding of circulated is that they have a Wanted Register or a list. So it gets circulated among the various police stations that this person is wanted. There is then a specific unit within the SAPS called the Tracing Team who would then do whatever it is that they do to try and locate these individuals.

We've got cases here from five years, very serious. Let's go Cleveland: rape and attempted murder. It cannot be that it takes five years to locate somebody who has a known address of a relative that they know of in Newcastle and they can't get to this man. It cannot be.

Chris Steyn (11:14.319)

Surely circulated should mean something like the FBI's Most Wanted list because they should go public and say “Wanted Suspects” because I don't think it would help to circulate it amongst police stations where there's already such dysfunction that a missing person not related to any case there wouldn’t be of much importance. What do you think?

Barry (11:20.225)

Well, it probably does, but you've to have somebody who takes you.

Barry (11:41.035)

Well, Chris, I think you and I are both old enough to remember ‘Police File’ every evening. Keep them peeled. You remember that. You'd think something like that would be helpful, even a website where members of the public and I know the FBI and the likes do have these in police stations around the world where…

Barry (11:57.227)

…those suspects are circulated, they are put up publicly and anybody can go and look and see what they can find and assist the authorities. That doesn't appear to be a service that's offered yet, but certainly much needed and I think you've hit on something there that perhaps somebody, and I'm sure there's other people who do this kind of lobbying, would be able to get the police to do.

Chris Steyn (12:15.983)

Barry, let's go to President Cyril Ramaphosa's address to the nation this week.

Barry (12:22.956)

Two issues that I think we can touch on here, and he gave deadlines. And let me just pull it up here. I've got it somewhere here, Chris. Here we go. So there's two issues, and he spoke about within 60 days, and he was referring to there must be a case audit to identify the number and age of unresolved cases awaiting forensic evidence or cases in which suspects have been identified and not arrested.

You and I have just discussed four of us. And I mean, they're all here. We've put together the list. We've given it to the police, and their response on each one is, we've circulated and it's gone to the Tracing team. It doesn't cut it. If that's the response that the SAPS or the authorities are gonna give to the President, well then we're not gonna change anything. It's not gonna happen.

The president also says within 90 days on these recovery plans to sort out these cases, which we hope aren't just shoved off to the tracing team, it says they must identify the responsible official. Now there must be accountability and that's part of what the private prosecution does. We try to ensure some kind of accountability. We provide that oversight function for the SAPS when they fail in cases like the ones that we've discussed.

We've taken on a case this week and again I've got all these papers around me and this is a Mamelodi case. It's another assault TBH and I can quickly show you here quickly. This is a woman who was attacked by her neighbour at the beginning of April. She was beaten by this man. She went to the Mamelodi East police station, where she filed the criminal complaint. Within three weeks she got an SMS, this is an automated SMS from the SAPS CAS system, telling her that the decision had been made to close the docket.

Now, unfortunately many women will walk away and they just accept that they've been failed by the system. Thankfully this woman decided she's not going to do that. And she went to the police to go and ask them why the case was closed. And they said it was a prosecutor's decision…to go speak to the prosecutor. She went to the prosecutor. The prosecutor said, no, it's not for us, it's back to the police. She went back to the police. They referred her back to the court. So back and forth before she eventually came to us and says, I don't know. And we then wrote to the prosecutor at the Mamelodi Court. And what we established is that the investigating officer that had originally been assigned the case had apparently gone away on a training course.

Barry (14:48.17)

And there was another detective at the police station who got this docket, went to a Colonel at the police station, and between them it was decided without it being sent to the actual National Prosecution Authority that they were going to close the case themselves. And that's what they did and the matter was filed away.

So based on that… we're going to work to have the assault GBA case reopened in the Magistrates Court.

But the president wants to talk about accountability. This is the affidavit that is going to be used. And we're going to assist this woman to go and file defeating the ends of justice cases against that detective and the colonel who decided to close the case without referring for a prosecution, without any further investigation. Because there must be consequences for the police officers who simply just don't do their jobs and basically we say engage in criminal conduct. This is why we are failing them.

We had another case in Mamelodi and this was a private prosecution…. We succeeded in that one. Also, a common assault case: was a neighbour, there was a dispute late at night, he punched and kicked her because someone had thrown his keys. It was a stupid, the point is he punched and kicked her. She went to the police station, and they turned her away. Eventually she came to us, we privately prosecuted and we got the success.

The President speaks a lot about how we mustn't wait until it gets to a murder before we do something. Our position has always been if you want to deal with Gender-Based Violence, it is at that very front. It's the slap, it's the kick, it's the verbal abuse. If you start doing those basics and you start ensuring accountability, that there is certainty of prosecution for those, and we can't call everything Gender-Based Violence, but let's be in the bigger picture of where we are dealing with assault, GBH, up to murder and attempted murder.

A common assault case where a man slaps a woman, there must be accountability at that level. And men must know that even those minor things, where police often turn them away saying go negotiate it yourself or something like that. We can start ensuring prosecutions there and punishment there. I think we'll do a lot to make inroads into gender-based violence.

Chris Steyn (17:03.139)

Quite, because if you let a man get away with a slap, he'll escalate.

Barry (17:08.928)

Well, absolutely. It always starts somewhere.

And the president did talk about the Protection Orders. Women do get protection orders, but when there is a breach of the protection order, they go to the SAPS and the SAPS turn them away instead of enforcing that protection order and ensuring that the person who breaches it, there is accountability there.

So all of those things are slipping through the cracks.

Let's take our cue from this case that we've just opened here. You look at the police officers who are making those decisions to close dockets, no investigation, not even referring it to the court. Police officers who turn women away at the police station level. You know, this is our bread and butter stuff. This is what the Private Prosecution Unit is all about. It's about people, in these cases, all women, who've been failed by the system and the people who are supposed to support them.

Chris Steyn (17:58.873)

Thank you, Barry. That was Barry Bateman of AfriForum's Private Prosecution Unit speaking to BizNews, I'm Chris Steyn. Thank you very much, Barry.

Barry (18:09.91)

Thank you so much, Chris. Appreciate it.

GBV suspects on the run | Barry Bateman