Justice without fear or favour prevails – IRR
30 April 202
[The IRR inadvertently released an earlier statement under this heading on Friday. The following is the correct version.]
The IRR was alarmed at the blinding pace with which Mpumalanga politicians and national opinion-makers drew the conclusion that four white farmers were guilty of murdering two innocent black work-seekers on a farm in Eastern Mpumalanga before ascertaining even the most basic facts. Despite the climate of bias against the farmers, and later a farm worker too, the Mkhondo Magistrate’s Court presided over the bail hearing without fear or favour, and granted bail.
The most basic fact that early race-baiting accusers were blind to was that one of the deceased, Zenzele Coka, was not a “work-seeker” as he had been described in the national press for two weeks, but in fact a loyal farm worker. Furthermore, video footage shows that Zenzele Coka, the loyal worker, clashed with his brother, Amos Mgcini Coka, who was unemployed and was apparently trying to break into the farm.
This took place shortly before the fatal shots were fired. That Zenzele’s death by gunshot thereafter may be a case of fratricide, whether accidental or deliberate, makes it no less tragic or worthy of serious consideration, though little attention to this aspect has been granted by opportunists who aim to narrate all tragedy as resulting from clashes between black and white.