Cape Town - A convicted murderer who is appealing against his conviction and 15 year sentence has argued in the Constitutional Court that hearsay evidence violated his right to a fair trial.
The application for leave to appeal has been opposed by the State.
Makhi Kapa is currently serving his sentence at the Helderstroom Maximum Prison near the Theewaterskloof region, after being found guilty of the murder of Makhuze Bungane through acts of vigilantism during 2018.
Kapa was charged with four counts of kidnapping, two counts of murder, two counts of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm and one count of attempted murder.
The judge subsequently found him guilty on one charge of murder and not guilty on all other charges.
According to oral and documentary evidence submitted by the deceased’s grandmother during trial, it was charged that Kapa, along with two other men, fetched Bungane from his home “to point out items that had gone missing” but later the same day, Bungane was brought back home by one of the men, by which time he had already died.
A post mortem showed that Bungane had died as a result of extensive blunt force injury to his head and body.
According to evidence submitted by eye-witness Bomikazi Dasi – who died before the trial commenced, Bungane was beaten up in Kapa’s home with a golf stick after being accused of stealing a car music system.
Kapa denied that he was present when the murder took place.
According to Kapa’s heads of argument, the eye-witness statement should not have been accepted as evidence as it “did not comply with the Justice of the Peace and Commissioners of Oaths Act” in that it was provided in isiXhosa and recorded in English.
Kapa also further held that the court “overemphasised the seriousness of the crime” and his involvement.
He argued that the court should have imposed a correctional supervision sentence.
He has asked the Constitutional Court to intervene and impose a lesser sentence.
In the State’s heads of argument, they submitted there are “no reasonable prospects of success on appeal” as the eye-witness account of Dasi was not the only evidence linking Kapa to the murder.
The matter continues.
Cape Times