Hemi300c
Honorary Master
January 20 2012 at 10:48am
By ANGELIQUE SERRAO
parktown boys saga
INLSA
Pene Kimber walking out of the Johannesburg Magistrate's court in connection with her son who was allegedley assaulted by fellow pupils at Parktown Boys High.
The mother of a Grade 11 boy has spent the past three years attempting to get justice for her son – but the system has failed her.
In February 2009, Pene Kimber, a mother of a Grade 11 boy, reported an assault on her son by 12 matric boys at Parktown Boys High School.
Her son said he and other Grade 11 boys in his hostel were stripped naked, had Deep Heat put on their genitals and were beaten by each matric boy with sporting equipment.
The 12 were arrested for assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm.
After 12 postponements in the juvenile section of the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court, the case was struck off the roll in November 2010 for a decision on whether it should go to trial for the accused to be enrolled in a diversion programme. “I heard absolutely nothing after it was struck from the roll,” said Kimber. “In July last year I began asking what had happened.”
She discovered the director of public prosecutions’ office had decided the case should go to trial and the docket had been sent to the magistrate’s court.
Many of the 12 have turned 21 – some are at university, and others have gone to work in other countries.
Senior deputy director of public prosecutions advocate Kholeka Gcaleka confirmed that her office had decided that the matter should go to trial.
“Representations were filed with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions South Gauteng. After in-depth consideration, the Director of Public Prosecutions instructed that prosecution in the matter must proceed against all accused,” Gcaleka said.
Kimber searched for the docket for months. “It took months of endless calling. I finally found out that the docket number had changed, and that made it a little easier. I finally tracked it to someone’s office in the magistrate’s court.”
Kimber said it had taken eight months after the director’s office made the decision for the case to appear on the court roll on Thursday.
“I just kept on fighting. It really made me realise that you have to do it yourself if you want justice to happen. If I hadn’t tracked down the file, this would have been swept under the carpet,” said Kimber.
On Thursday, due to the tenacity of a mother, more than a year later, the case was put back on the court roll – and then promptly struck off again.
While waiting for court proceedings to begin on Thursday, the attorney representing the 12 arrived with the magistrate and demanded that Kimber go to the chief prosecutor’s office.
While there, Kimber said she was told that two of the accused had said she had taken pictures of them on her cellphone.
“Theresa (the chief prosecutor) demanded we hand them our phones so they could look at the photos,” said Kimber. “They actually called one of the boys and asked him to look.”
Nothing was found, and an apology from the boys was demanded.
“I was marched downstairs like I was a criminal and falsely accused,” said Kimber. “This was just an attempt at intimidation.”
The families of the 12 accused refused to speak to The Star on Thursday.
In court, the magistrate dismissed the case from the court roll because the investigating officer had not delivered subpoenas to all the accused and some of them were not signed or dated properly.
Now Kimber has to try again to get it back on the roll. - The Star
Oh well I guess if it was lesser offence involving race it would be getting top priority!
By ANGELIQUE SERRAO
parktown boys saga
INLSA
Pene Kimber walking out of the Johannesburg Magistrate's court in connection with her son who was allegedley assaulted by fellow pupils at Parktown Boys High.
The mother of a Grade 11 boy has spent the past three years attempting to get justice for her son – but the system has failed her.
In February 2009, Pene Kimber, a mother of a Grade 11 boy, reported an assault on her son by 12 matric boys at Parktown Boys High School.
Her son said he and other Grade 11 boys in his hostel were stripped naked, had Deep Heat put on their genitals and were beaten by each matric boy with sporting equipment.
The 12 were arrested for assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm.
After 12 postponements in the juvenile section of the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court, the case was struck off the roll in November 2010 for a decision on whether it should go to trial for the accused to be enrolled in a diversion programme. “I heard absolutely nothing after it was struck from the roll,” said Kimber. “In July last year I began asking what had happened.”
She discovered the director of public prosecutions’ office had decided the case should go to trial and the docket had been sent to the magistrate’s court.
Many of the 12 have turned 21 – some are at university, and others have gone to work in other countries.
Senior deputy director of public prosecutions advocate Kholeka Gcaleka confirmed that her office had decided that the matter should go to trial.
“Representations were filed with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions South Gauteng. After in-depth consideration, the Director of Public Prosecutions instructed that prosecution in the matter must proceed against all accused,” Gcaleka said.
Kimber searched for the docket for months. “It took months of endless calling. I finally found out that the docket number had changed, and that made it a little easier. I finally tracked it to someone’s office in the magistrate’s court.”
Kimber said it had taken eight months after the director’s office made the decision for the case to appear on the court roll on Thursday.
“I just kept on fighting. It really made me realise that you have to do it yourself if you want justice to happen. If I hadn’t tracked down the file, this would have been swept under the carpet,” said Kimber.
On Thursday, due to the tenacity of a mother, more than a year later, the case was put back on the court roll – and then promptly struck off again.
While waiting for court proceedings to begin on Thursday, the attorney representing the 12 arrived with the magistrate and demanded that Kimber go to the chief prosecutor’s office.
While there, Kimber said she was told that two of the accused had said she had taken pictures of them on her cellphone.
“Theresa (the chief prosecutor) demanded we hand them our phones so they could look at the photos,” said Kimber. “They actually called one of the boys and asked him to look.”
Nothing was found, and an apology from the boys was demanded.
“I was marched downstairs like I was a criminal and falsely accused,” said Kimber. “This was just an attempt at intimidation.”
The families of the 12 accused refused to speak to The Star on Thursday.
In court, the magistrate dismissed the case from the court roll because the investigating officer had not delivered subpoenas to all the accused and some of them were not signed or dated properly.
Now Kimber has to try again to get it back on the roll. - The Star
Oh well I guess if it was lesser offence involving race it would be getting top priority!
