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Mzwakhe Mbuli

The case of the People's Poet Mzwakhe Mbuli has one last chance
to appeal against his 13-year prison sentence at the Supreme
Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein on 23rd May 2002.
Dubbed the 'people's poet' his inspirational words resonated
over the graves of struggle heroes during the 1980s. Tall and
charismatic, the 38-year-old poet was the obvious choice to
chant in praise of Nelson Mandela at his presidential
inauguration in 1994

On October 28, 1997, he was arrested and charged with armed
robbery. Denied bail because he was seen as a flight risk,
Mbuli was brought to trial at Pretoria Magistrate's court in
June 1998. In March 1999 he was found guilty and sentenced to
13 years. Mbuli has always protested his innocence, claiming he
was framed, but in November last year his appeal to the
Pretoria High Court was turned down.
There has been an international campaign for his release for
the past 4 years led by Helen Suzman, who visits him regularly
in prison. Although sceptical about Mbuli's case at first she
says, 'after meeting him and attending both court cases I
became absolutely convinced of his innocence.

The facts of the case that have led to Mbuli's conviction are a
mass of contradictions and it must be borne in mind that the
onus of proof remains on the state throughout and the law
demands proof beyond reasonable doubt.' Both the original
magistrate's court trial and the High Court in Mbuli's appeal
referred to the 'slovenly investigative work on the part of the
police'.

1. It was twenty minutes after the bank had been robbed that Inspector Barend Brits and Sergeant Hannes Venter pulled over
Mbuli's blue BMW about 200 metres from the bank. It beggars
belief that robbers would still be only 200 metres from the
bank twenty minutes after the robbery.

2. Why would a very famous artist such as Mbuli , wear no
disguise and use his own car to rob a bank of a small amount of
money.

3 'The identity parade was a farce,' Suzman says. Only one of
the six witnesses pointed out Mbuli in the line-up. She
subsequently admitted under cross-examination that she worked
for CNA stationers and had seen Mbuli's picture in the newspapers before the parade..
4. 'There were no fingerprints,' says Suzman. The witnesses
could not agree on whether two or three people were involved in
the robbery. However, they did agree that a gun and a
hand-grenade were handled by the robbers and that they were not
wearing gloves. Police failed to find fingerprints of any of
the accused in the bank. No fingerprints were taken of the bag,
hand-grenade, the gun or the money. It was stated by the police
that fingerprints were found in the bank but later denied . Who
did they belong to - the real robbers ?

5. The gun and other evidence could have been slipped into the
car at any time after the arrest, as the car was not properly
secured. Indeed, there was some controversy over where exactly
the grenade and star pistol were found.

6. The video surveillance camera in the bank, which might have
provided crucial evidence, was inexplicably not switched on at
the time of the robbery. Hence, there is no evidence of
identity linking Mbuli to the scene of the crime. Ultimately,
the case against Mbuli turns on his possession of the stolen
property and his explanation of how he came by the property

7. The day before Mbuli's trial began on June 22, 1998, one of
the two arresting officers, Sergeant Venter, committed suicide
for no apparent reason. As a result the state's case against
Mbuli relied solely on the evidence of Inspector Brits.
8. The evidence of a cleaner at the bank, Alfred Ramela, was
scrapped from the court record because he changed his evidence.
In his statement to the police he identified all three accused
as the robbers, but in court said he had never seen them
before. Ramela had been with Brits and Venter in the police car
when the arrest was made.
9. Mbuli applied for bail three times while the state took
eight months to bring him to court. All the bail applications
were refused, partly on the testimony of Capt Fabricius, who
linked him to other crimes. Subsequently Mbuli was not found to
be associated with any of these cases. Mbuli's supporters drew
angry comparisons with the granting of bail to farmer Nicholas
Steyn, arrested for the killing of baby Thobile Angeline Zwane
in April 1998.


Mbuli's explanation for the stolen property found in his car is
complicated. He said that Masiso had arranged a meeting for him
with a certain Dlamini who claimed to have information
regarding the 1996 assassination attempt on Mbuli's life. In
that incident armed men followed his car from Johannesburg to
Leondale on the East Rand and sprayed it with gunfire. Mbuli
escaped unhurt but has always sought to uncover who was
responsible

The meeting with Dlamini was to take place in Pretoria on
October 28, the day of the robbery. That morning Mbuli drove to
Pretoria, with Masiso and Shikwambane, to meet Dlamini. While
waiting at the appointed spot, says Mbuli, a person approached
his car and flung a blue bag through the window, saying
something like 'here is the evidence' and then ran off. Mbuli
and his friends did not look inside the bag but drove around
attempting to find the person responsible, whom they assumed to
be Dlamini, until the police stopped them.
Is it not also possible that the police were so convinced of
the poet's guilt from the outset that they made no effort to
conduct a proper investigation or unearth the truth? Surely an
accused should reap the benefit of the doubt created by
slovenly police work, which could so easily have established
further evidence of guilt or innocence?
Mbuli's latest album, a collection of greatest hits, is
entitled 'Born free but always in chains'. One of his new
songs, 'Bank, Bottlestore and Businessman', ends with the line,
'The truth is yet to come and the truth shall set me free.'
Gill Lloyd.
On behalf of Mzwakhe Mbuli
London UK.


Quotes from an article by Jean Redpath, a qualified attorney,
writer and researcher are used in this release.

• article submitted by: WOMEX