INLSA
Sifiso Zulu takes a cellphone call on the balcony of his flat at the Point Waterfront in Durban yesterday afternoon. Pictures: Doctor Ngcobo
Authorities passed the buck yesterday when asked if a warrant of arrest had been issued for businessman Sifiso Zulu, who appeared to remain at liberty at his flat in Durban last night.
Zulu was supposedly meant to hand himself over to Westville Prison authorities yesterday to begin serving his effective three-year jail term for culpable homicide, after his appeal was dismissed in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Friday.
A spokeswoman for the provincial prosecuting authority, Natasha Ramkisson, said it was stated in Zulu’s bail conditions that “in the event of the appeal being finalised by being dismissed, whether wholly or in part, withdrawn, abandoned or struck off the roll… the appellant has to serve a term of imprisonment and must surrender himself within 48 hours to the clerk of the criminal court, the Durban Magistrate’s Court”.
However, when asked if a warrant of arrest had been or would be issued, Ramkisson referred questions to the “clerk of the court or the registrar’s office in Pietermaritzburg”.
But officials there said they were not allowed to comment.
Police spokesman Vincent Mdunge said that, to his knowledge, no warrant had been issued.
He referred queries to Ramkisson, saying she was the best person to shed more light on the issue.
“We only become involved when warrants are issued. It’s a prosecuting authority matter,” he said.
On the other hand, National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Mthunzi Mhaga responded that it was the responsibility of the police to ensure that a convicted person handed himself over.
Mhaga said that procedurally, when an appeal was lost, the investigating officer would obtain a committal warrant from the clerk of the court. The committal warrant authorised Correctional Services to process the new inmate. Asked about the deadline for Zulu to surrender himself to prison authorities, Mhaga said that the 48-hour countdown had started from the time the judgment had been delivered on Friday.
Pietermaritzburg High Court appeal Judge Piet Koen had rejected Zulu’s claims that he was not at the wheel at the time of the accident and said the evidence pointed irresistibly to his having been the driver.
Judge Koen found that he had been correctly convicted.
Driving his BMW X5, Zulu had gone through a red traffic light at the intersection of Masabalala Yengwa (NMR) Avenue and Somtseu Road in Durban in March 2008, crashing into a bakkie and killing two of the 12 passengers.
He was sentenced to five years in prison (two suspended), plus fines totalling R7 500.
But Zulu’s attorney, Lonwabo Dandala, remained defiant yesterday.
“How can we surrender if we have not been served with any form of papers? All we know is what we have been reading about in the papers and told by reporters,” he said.
Dandala maintained that neither he nor his client had received any correspondence that the appeal had been heard or dismissed.
However, officials from the high court said a message had been conveyed to Dandala’s corresponding attorneys that judgment was to be handed down, but the attorneys declined to comment on whether their office had relayed the message to Dandala.
The latter said last night that Zulu’s legal team was considering approaching the Constitutional Court to have the entire appeal process declared invalid.
The other option was to apply for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal. Zulu may also apply for bail pending appeal if granted leave to appeal to the SCA.
If that fails, he could petition the chief justice.
