Acting appeal judge Sharise Weiner said the high court in Johannesburg got it wrong when it decided there should be an inquiry under the Firearms Control Act into whether the Stanfields’ guns should be returned.
This ruling had been made on the basis that no criminal proceedings were pending, she said. But Lt-Col Roger Naude, of the anti-gang unit, had told the court the charges had only been provisionally withdrawn in 2016, and they would be reinstated.
“The director of public prosecutions subsequently became aware that several similar investigations had been referred to other investigators and prosecutors in different provinces,” said Weiner.
“The scale of the offences was vastly greater than what was suspected at the time.”
In the earlier high court case, Judge Sulet Potterill criticised the Stanfields’ “astounding” argument that the decision to prosecute them in the Western Cape pointed to an ulterior motive.
“It does not flow from any facts and must be rejected,” she said. “It is most certainly in the interest of the administration of justice to try the accused, who are overwhelmingly resident in the Western Cape, in that jurisdiction.
“Many of the Prevention of Organised Crime offences occurred in the Western Cape and that court accordingly does have jurisdiction.”
According to the previous charge sheet, the Khayelitsha trial will hear allegations that the 28s gang was implicated in crimes ranging from murder and possession of unlicensed firearms to intimidation of witnesses and drug trafficking.
On 7 May 2014, the charge sheet said, Stanfield unlawfully armed himself with a rifle, a Glock pistol and ammunition. Between June 2014 and March 2015, he unlawfully carried a Remington rifle and three semi-automatic pistols.
Johnson was accused of having armed herself with two pistols and a rifle.
(SOURCE: TIMES LIVE)