Free State judge says system has ‘collapsed’

A Sunday Times report says he made the comments in the trial of a 23-year-old farm labourer who had stabbed his elderly mother 35 times. The labourer, Fanie Tshabalala, almost walked free after killing his mother, said the judge, because of shoddy police work and staff and equipment shortages at the National Forensic Laboratory in Pretoria. Evidence, including the murder weapon, vanished from the Warden Police Station. And, a year and a half after the murder, key DNA tests have yet to be processed. On Friday in the Harrismith Circuit Court, where he sentenced Tshabalala to 17 years in jail, Hattingh remained combative. He ordered State Advocate Lucky Bontes to ensure his judgment was sent to Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula, ‘the one who says there isn’t crime’. He also called for the head of the Warden Police Station commander, Captain Mthenjwa Kheswa, who ‘threw away the evidence’. Full report in the Sunday Times