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The Congress of South African Trade Unions in the NW has learned that the National Prosecuting Authority has responded publicly in the media that they will not appeal the case of the late Moss Phakoe after the two accused of murdering him were acquitted by the same high court that sentenced them to life and 20 years.

We are disappointed, as we wrote a letter to NPA nationally demanding a clear response on what is going to happen now that the high court of Mmabatho has changed their decisions on this case which had the interest of the public nationally as well as the people of the NW.

Our view is that people called as state witnessed misled the court into making a wrong ruling and that those, who we are told, changed their statements must account for that.
The NPA in the NW responded to our letter, saying they are as disappointed as COSATU is, that their head office has requested a detailed report on the matter and they will respond to our letter. Yet they now go to the media and say they will not appeal on the matter.

We want to be on record that we did not ask NPA of the NW to appeal the matter; we are simply asking for an explanation to the public, including ourselves, on what happened. Why is NPA changing their decision?
The NPA prosecuted, and the court sentenced, the wrong people on the basis of testimony from the police and the witness. We want to know what has caused the NPA and court to change their ruling.

We have not said the accused are wrong. We are questioning the state and the police, who at first said to the public that they had a strong case against the accused. They must now go back to the public and say “we were wrong, we had a weak case”.

We want to be on record that we will do anything within our power to call for the police to reopen the case. Those who killed Moss must account. If the police are also confirming that they arrested wrong people, they must find out and tell us who killed Moss. They must establish a task team to reinvestigate the matter and those who misled the court and the public must also account, be charged and arrested.

We support the acquitted people’s decision to sue the state and the police for the wrong arrest.

We all know that this case was difficult for the police of the NW to deal with from the first time, but Moss was not killed by a ghost. The police must tell his family who killed him.
We call on the police to reopen the case and it must be reinvestigated and those who lied to the court must face the music.

We do not have money but we are repeating that we will do everything to find out what happened and who killed Moss.