“The message we want to send is: if you kill a policeman and you get arrested, there will be no bail. You must rot in jail.”
|||Cape Town - About 20 000 Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) members are angered by the murder of two police officers gunned down in Hout Bay last week.
Popcru provincial secretary Mncedisi David Mbolekwa, backed by dozens of Imizamo Yethu informal settlement residents, protested outside the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.
“The message we want to send is: if you kill a policeman and you get arrested, there will be no bail. You must rot in jail,” Mbolekwa said.
Popcru and the residents were at court on Wednesday for the first appearance of the man accused of killing two police officers in the informal settlement last Friday.
Fabianus Fillipus, originally of Namibia, was arrested on Sunday for the murders of Constable Constable Phindiwe Nikani, 26, and colleague Mandisi Nduku, 27.
Magistrate Marietjie van Eeden explained Fillipus’s rights, but Fillipus said he did not understand English very well and later asked that a Xhosa interpreter assist him.
Fillipus said he would defend himself.
State prosecutor Andile Tembani asked that the case be postponed for one week to ascertain Fillipus’s bail profile and decide whether the State would oppose bail.
After a short deliberation, the magistrate decided to roll the case to Thursday so that an interpreter could be arranged.
Fillipus was held at the Bellville police station.
jade.witten@inl.co.za
Cape Argus