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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