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- Bail was granted to two Eastern Cape police officers facing a charge of rape.
- They allegedly assaulted and raped a man they picked up in their service vehicle.
- The magistrate said the State's case is not yet strong enough to keep the accused in custody.
Two police officers accused of raping a man in Kariega, Nelson Mandela Bay, after loading him into a service vehicle have been granted bail of R5000 each.
The constable and sergeant, both members of the Kamesh Visible Policing Unit, appeared in the Kariega Magistrate's Court on Monday for their bail application. Judgment was handed down on the same day.
They are accused of picking up a 37-year-old man, who was on his way home from a friend's house in Rosedale on 10 July last year.
The man was allegedly raped with a sharp object, assaulted and pepper-sprayed.
The man was reportedly dropped at a deserted location and had to find his way back home.
The complainant also allegedly lost consciousness at one point and struggled to walk because of the severity of the assault.
One officer was arrested by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate at the Mount Road police station in Gqeberha while the other was arrested at Cuyler Hospital in Kariega during a visit to a sick family member last Thursday.
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The two cannot be named until they have pleaded, in accordance with the Criminal Procedure Act related to sexual offences.
In her judgment, the magistrate said the applicants had not succeeded in proving that their personal circumstances are exceptional.
However, she found that based on the evidence provided to the court so far, it did not seem that the State had a strong case "at this stage".
"I am saying at this stage, because this is not a trial and all evidence has not yet been presented. But at this stage, the State's case is not strong enough to keep the applicants in custody," she said.
The magistrate referred to evidence provided by the State in the form of vehicle tracker records that allegedly prove the two accused and their service vehicle were at the location where the victim was assaulted on the night of the incident.
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She said there was uncertainty with this evidence because although the tracker records placed the vehicle at the spot where the victim was allegedly dropped off after the assault, it did not place them at the place where the attack allegedly occurred.
She also said the times given by the complainant do not correspond with the times indicated on the tracker records.
"Time is not usually important to me because no one actually looks at their watch and knows that they will be accosted in a few minutes. But there is uncertainty to these records, and it is not clear where and what time the victim was picked up," she said.
She said the court would grant the pair bail but with very strict conditions.
The accused are not allowed any direct or indirect contact with witnesses, and they are not allowed to leave Kariega or Gqeberha without prior written permission from the investigating officer.
The case was postponed to 4 September for further investigation.
