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<\/p>\nCAPE TIMES<\/p>\n
Gcinikhaya Makoma consults with his advocate Ellen Fitz-Patrick in the Western Cape High Court. He and eight of his co-accused were convicted of a host of charges relating to a cash van heist in Parow in 2007. Picture: MATTHEW JORDAAN<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Gcinikhaya Makoma evaded a 23-year jail sentence when the Truth and Reconciliation Commission granted him amnesty for the 1993 St James Church massacre. Now, he faces life in prison.<\/p>\n
He was convicted, along with eight other men, of a string of charges relating to a cash van heist in Parow in 2007.<\/p>\n
After a marathon trial in the Western Cape High Court, Makoma was found guilty of 10 charges \u2013 including murder, robbery and five counts of attempted murder \u2013 on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Makoma was one of the Azanian People\u2019s Liberation Army cadres who attacked the Kenilworth church in 1993, killing 11 people and wounding dozens more. He was 17 at the time.<\/p>\n
Makoma was sentenced to 23 years behind bars for his role in the massacre; however, he was granted amnesty after serving five-and-a-half years of his sentence.<\/p>\n
He now faces imprisonment along with his co-accused Lunga Luke, Thobela Nono, Zamekile Ngqonga, Thando Mafalala, Thobile Pezisa, Andile Ndandani, Zukile Netti and Thembikile Tikipini, who were convicted of similar charges.<\/p>\n
One of the men, Celani Twazi, was acquitted of all the charges. Justice Patrick Gamble\u2019s judgment brought the case to near finality after it ran for a lengthy 161 court days, which included five \u201ctrials-within-trials\u201d. His judgment alone took nine days to read into the record.<\/p>\n
And one of the accused did not live long enough to see the end of the trial. Mzukisi Malamela died in October, apparently of malaria.<\/p>\n
Gamble found that the nine other men had acted in common purpose in their attack on the cash van in Parow on December 3, 2007.<\/p>\n
It was midday, and the attack, according to Gamble, was executed \u201cwith paramilitary precision\u201d.<\/p>\n
Almost a dozen men armed with automatic rifles, including AK-47s, cornered the van with cars they had hijacked at gunpoint just days before, then fired at the windscreen until it shattered.<\/p>\n
A couple of them stood on car bonnets to get a better vantage point.<\/p>\n
They shot and killed the driver, while the other two men in the van scrambled for cover.<\/p>\n
Two constables \u2013 Christopher Kleinsmith and Frederick van der Poel \u2013 just happened to drive by during a patrol when they came across the violent scene.<\/p>\n
A shoot-out ensued.<\/p>\n
Then, before they could get to the money, the men made their getaway, some in a stolen white Ford and more in a VW Golf, also stolen.<\/p>\n
They split up, with the Golf heading towards the Florida Park sports ground. The men abandoned the car and sought refuge in a nearby cr\u00e8che.<\/p>\n
One of them hid in a cupboard and another was caught in the cr\u00e8che\u2019s freezer. In total, seven of them, including the acquitted Twazi, were arrested at the cr\u00e8che.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, just a couple of kilometres away, the rest of the robbers in the Ford also abandoned their vehicle and hijacked a taxi in Uitsig.<\/p>\n
They also dumped the taxi before making an escape, but evidence linked them to the robbery and they were arrested in the weeks following the incident.<\/p>\n
Several of the men \u2013 Makoma, Ndandani, Netti, Tikipini and Malamela \u2013 made confessions.A number of them also claimed that they had been victims of police brutality.<\/p>\n
Makoma claimed that he was tortured by police officers in an attempt to secure a confession, which had infringed his trial rights.<\/p>\n
But, Judge Gamble found that his allegations were \u201cnot sustainable\u201d and, as such, it did not compromise the admissibility of his confession.<\/p>\n
It is not yet certain whether Makoma\u2019s involvement in the St James Church massacre \u2013 his only previous conviction \u2013 will affect his sentence for the heist.<\/p>\n
His advocate, Ellen Fitz-Patrick, argued that the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act (also known as the TRC Act) stated that someone who was granted amnesty for a political crime should have their record expunged from all official documents so that it was \u201cdeemed not to have taken place\u201d.<\/p>\n
However, State advocate Greg Wolmarans said that the State would seek to have this conviction admitted during sentencing proceedings.<\/p>\n
There had been a ruling in the Supreme Court of Appeal in which Robert McBride had sued The Citizen newspaper for calling him a \u201ckiller\u201d.<\/p>\n
This was even though he had been granted amnesty for the bombing of Magoo\u2019s Bar on Durban\u2019s Marine Parade in Durban in 1986 as an Umkhonto we Sizwe soldier. – Cape Times<\/p>\n
leila.samodien@inl.co.za<\/p>\n