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I knew witches were real!

Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2014 12:31 pm
by MajGenl.Meade
25 Nov 2014 The Times (South Africa)
POPPY LOUW

Appeal to spirits from dock

THE bail application of a murder accused in Eastern Cape was postponed after it was alleged that she had written to her boyfriend asking for supernatural help in securing her freedom.

It is alleged that Aviwe Bila, 24, asked that the names of the Mthatha magistrate, the investigating officer and the prosecutor be given to “Mkhulu”, who would use them in performing a ritual that she believed would free her.

But the postponement, granted on November 14, was last week set aside by the Mthatha High Court, which ordered an urgent bail application.

According to court documents filed by Bila’s legal team, the contents of the letter were “subjectively viewed” by magistrate Zandile Mbilase as an “attempt of witchcraft”.

“The magistrate submitted that they needed more time to have the witchcraft investigated,” Bila’s lawyer, Unathi Ximbi, contended. He said the “love letter” was “blatantly being used to justify postponement”.

National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Luxolo Tyali said: “The matter was not postponed because of the letter that contained the witchcraft allegations.”

Bila is accused of planting a gun in a dustbin at the Mthatha High Court to help her brother, Yandisa, and cash-in-transit robbery kingpin Sakhumzi Mvoko escape from prison in September.

The two men were killed in a shootout with the police. Bila was arrested just over a week after the shooting and is facing five charges, including two counts of murder.
Given that the two "murders" are actually the death of her brother and his friend in their escape attempt, I think bail is likely. Is that really 'murder' - supplying a firearm to the dead person?

It's rather as if Mrs Surratt was hung for the murder of J W Booth because she provided the hiding place for the carbine he was holding when cornered in the tobacco barn

Re: I knew witches were real!

Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2014 4:09 pm
by TPFKA@W
I was saying to myself the other day, "We get so little news from SA, I really wish I knew what was going on in SA all the time being as it is relative to my health and well being."

Re: I knew witches were real!

Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2014 4:21 pm
by MajGenl.Meade
True, dat!

Re: I knew witches were real!

Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2014 1:02 am
by rubato
And please, god of confusion and error, let them be without context or meaning.


yrs,
rubato

Re: I knew witches were real!

Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2014 12:57 pm
by wesw
nice use of street vernacular meade! drop the comma tho.....

yrs,
ebonico

Re: I knew witches were real!

Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2014 2:22 pm
by Lord Jim
rubato wrote:And please, god of confusion and error, let them be without context or meaning.


yrs,
rubato
So that's the God you worship is it?

That explains so much....you're clearly a very devout and active member of the church...

And your inability to see context or meaning relates to your well known reading comprehension issues, not the posts...

I said it before, and I'll say it again...

I find Meade's post's about the socio/political and legal doings in South Africa interesting and informative, particularly coming from a person (like Meade) who has the perspective of having lived there.

Just as I find similar stories about Australia and the UK that are posted here interesting and informative. (Except for the cricket stuff. You guys can just knock off the cricket stuff.) I like learning more about life in places I don't have personal experience with. (And South Africa is an interesting place; it has an unusual history and a lot of unique social and cultural dynamics)

But maybe I'm an odd ball in this regard. Hell I even find stories about life in as exotic and remote a place as Indiana interesting to read... 8-)