Mido Macia murder case postponed

Judge Bert Bam postponed the trial to November 11 at the request of defence counsel, who said pre-sentence reports in respect of each accused were not ready yet and they needed more time.

The judge said it appeared that there were logistical problems in obtaining the reports as several officials had to attend to it.

He ordered that the accused - Meshack Malele, 46, Thamsamqa Mgema, 35, Percy Jonathan Mnisi, 26, Bongamusa Mdluli, 25, Sipho Sydwell Ngobeni, 30, Lungisa Gwababa, 31, Bongani Kolisi, 27, and Linda Sololo, 56, must remain in custody until then.

Last month, Judge Bam found all eight guilty of Macia's February 2013 murder.

The taxi driver died in a police cell hours after being handcuffed to a police van and dragged through the streets of Daveyton. He was found with his head in a pool of blood.

The incident took place in front of the angry community, who started pelting the police with stones.

A video of the incident went viral, causing international outrage about police brutality.

Acted with common purpose

Judge Bert Bam found that all of the policemen had known Macia was being dragged behind the police van to which he had been handcuffed and realised he could be seriously injured and die, but did nothing to assist him.

He ruled that they had acted with a common purpose.

He found that all of the accused, except Malele, had further assaulted Macia in the police cells after he was dragged, knowing that he was already injured.

He said Malele, as the senior officer at the scene and the arresting officer, had a duty to see to it that the detainee was not injured in his presence and to ensure that he received medical assistance, but did nothing to help Macia.

He rejected the accused's claims that they never realised Macia was seriously injured and did not foresee that he would die.

"There can be no doubt that they foresaw that the injuries could result in his death," Bam said in his judgment.

(File photo: Gallo Images)