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Senior regional magistrate Ronnie Rambau

Parliament concerned about lack of progress in Rambau hearing

 

The criminal case of senior regional magistrate Ronnie Rambau has long since reached the ears of Parliament - and they are worried.

Following Rambau’s appearance in the Messina Magistrate’s Court this week, the Zoutpansberger / Limpopo Mirror made a few enquiries into Rambau’s suspension as magistrate. What the newspaper found was that Parliament might have good reason to be concerned.

Contained within the latest minutes of Parliament’s Select Committee for Security and Justice was a fairly detailed account of Rambau’s endeavours since his arrest. The minutes were made available by the Parliamentary Monitoring Group. In terms of the Magistrates Act, Rambau’s employer, the Magistrate’s Commission (MC), must report to the justice committee every three months after the provisional suspension of a magistrate and keep them updated.

Rambau was arrested on 5 February 2010 for alleged corruption. Nine months later, he was provisionally suspended by the MC, on 4 November.

The newspaper was able to determine that Rambau’s disciplinary hearing started in February this year. His hearing was preceded by a pre-trial conference on 9 December last year to resolve the many disputes that Rambau had over his pending hearing. His biggest objection was that the criminal case had yet to be finalised and that it would therefore be unfair to penalize him beforehand.

Since his suspension in 2010, Rambau’s hearing has been postponed more than 10 times. During this time, he appointed two different legal representatives and asked for full disclosure of the MC’s evidentiary documents and statements, which was granted to him twice. During September 2011, Rambau failed to attend a hearing, due to “medical reasons.” He handed in a doctor’s note certifying that he had “diabetes mellitus” and was unfit to appear. It was on this hearing date that he was spotted shopping at the local Checkers.

His hearing finally started on 17 February this year when the first witness, a police official who also gave evidence in Rambau’s corruption trial, testified for the MC. On 5 March, however, proceedings came to a grinding halt.

On this day, the newspaper has learned, a shouting match broke out when Rambau’s new attorney disputed the authenticity of the evidence. The evidence in question was some of the telephone conversations intercepted by the SAPS while they were investigating Rambau and his co-accused. These recordings had already been presented by the State as proof of Rambau’s alleged corruption. During this time, his lawyer had offered no objection that it become evidence and consented to its authenticity.

Despite the MC’s begging the presiding officer to accept the court transcript of the criminal trial as a true record of proceedings, the hearing was stopped and postponed. Rambau’s attorney demanded that the telephone recordings, which had been saved on a disc, be unsealed, so that the contents could be played back and compared with evidence given during the court proceedings.

Following the MC’s report, a people’s representative of the ANC (African National Congress) questioned their efficiency. “It could be that the main problem was with individuals being charged, rather than with the system,” he said. He expressed his concern over the matter by also pointing to other magistrates, from different provinces, whose suspensions had to be lifted in order to cope with overburdened court rolls. He further pointed out that it would also be difficult to replace Rambau as he was still receiving his salary.

From the committee’s minutes, it further became clear that Parliament was “concerned” about postponements and delays in Rambau’s case. The general view of committee attendees was that loopholes in the law were being exploited, resulting in cases that were indefinitely unresolved. They were particularly concerned that some of the cases were now being passed on to the fifth Parliament.

Mr Hans Meijer of the MC said in rebuttal that his committee had to be thorough when ensuring that misconduct inquiries were procedural and fair, even though it was a very time-consuming matter.

In the meantime, the MC was mute on when Rambau’s misconduct trial was expected to continue.

 

Date:22 August 2014

By: Isabel Venter

Isabel joined the Zoutpansberger and Limpopo Mirror in 2009 as a reporter. She holds a BA Degree in Communication Sciences from the University of South Africa. Her beat is mainly crime and court reporting.

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