Cape Town - A former police officer accused of murdering his girlfriend was granted R10 000 bail by the Western Cape High Court this week.
Judge Daniel Thulare granted Olwethu Motsi – who faces charges of murder, unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition, fraud and defeating the ends of justice – bail, saying that he was pleased Motsi proved that the decision of a magistrate to deny him bail was wrong.
Motsi, who was an officer stationed at Cape Town SAPS and has since resigned from SAPS employ, was arrested after he allegedly murdered his girlfriend, Veronica Blignaut, with his service pistol in Lwandle, Strand, on August 12, 2020.
Police spokesperson Andre Traut confirmed that Motsi had resigned from the SAPS and his service was terminated at the end of August 2020.
According to Motsi, he and Blignaut had been at home on the day of the murder when they were accosted by three men who demanded his service pistol. At the time, the pair’s 5-month-old baby was also at home when the incident occurred.
While he now disputes the charges against him, the court has already heard that Motsi had soon after his arrest changed the version of a robbery gone wrong to a confession, saying that he had hired someone to kill his girlfriend for R3 000.
At his initial bail hearing, verbatim record from the magistrate’s court read: “There is one confession from the accused wherein he refers to the address of his girlfriend where he says, he first claimed in the confession that it was a robbery gone wrong, Your Worship, that she was shot dead in that manner. Later he changed in the same confession… the version to that he hired someone… to kill his girlfriend. It is the same girlfriend he had been referring… who he wants to get out of the mortuary.”
The lower court had denied bail to Motsi following a two-day bail hearing.
Judge Thulare, in bail judgment, said: “The feeling of being upset, annoyed or disappointed as a result of being unable to achieve or fulfil constitutional obligations is a discernable emotional response from the magistrate. It is grounded on the perceived resistance of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the SAPS, to the magistrate’s fulfilment of their constitutional duty. The questions of the magistrate reveal frustration, which manifested in what may seem like aggression, hostility or impulsivity…
“It is the utmost demonstration of a lack of common sense and absurd to have a bail application when an applicant has not been fully informed of the case against him… In this bail application the State relied on a murky case with a dark and gloomy confession due to the failures of morally questionable functionaries which resulted in obscure facts of what happened,” said Judge Thulare.
Cape Times