A driver, who killed 24 people when his lorry ploughed
through a busy Durban intersection last year, is set to be freed, his
lawyer said on Tuesday.
*Driver May
“The
charges are no longer murder. The (Directorate of Public Prosecutions)
have advised us today that they are changing the charges to culpable
homicide,” Lindokuhle Mdletshe told reporters.
Earlier the driver,
Sanele Goodness May, made a brief appearance in the Pinetown
Magistrate's Court by video link from Durban's Westville Prison.
Mdletshe
was speaking outside the court after he advised the court that he had
new reasons for bringing a fresh bail application.
“The dropping of the murder charges was one of the reasons for us bringing a new bail application.”
He
did not elaborate on the other reasons and these were not raised in
court. Mdletshe, who flashed a copy of his letter from the DPP outside
court, said although he had been advised that the 24 charges of murder
would be dropped, it would probably only happen formally once the
indictment was served in May.
The case against May was adjourned
to March 28 to allow for the indictment to be served and for police to
investigate new information pertaining to the fresh bail application.
Magistrate
Gwendolyn Robinson denied him bail last year, ruling he was a flight
risk. Robinson said he was in the country illegally and for her to grant
him bail the court would be required to legalise his residency status
while he was awaiting trial. The courts did not have such authority.
On
the evening of September 5, at the height of rush hour traffic, May's
truck ploughed into four minibus taxis and two cars at an intersection
at the bottom of Fields Hill in Pinetown. Twenty-two people were killed
at the scene. Two died in hospital later.
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