Kruger Park murders: Why wasn't the family told?

Mozambique has refused to extradite the 2 men accused of murdering Ernst and Dina Marais in the Kruger National Park in May, and they will be prosecuted in Mozambique instead. The Department of Justice says it never lodged a formal extradition request, because the National Prosecuting Authority never asked it to. Mozambique’s constitution has always barred the extradition of its own citizens, which means the extradition a cabinet minister promised in June was never available. The victims’ family say nobody told them any of it.

What happened in May

Ernst Marais was 71 and his wife Dina was 73. They were from Mossel Bay and they were in the Kruger National Park to celebrate her birthday.

They were last seen on 20 May at the Pafuri picnic site, in the far northern section of the park. When they did not return to camp, a search started. On 22 May their bodies were found in the Levubu River near Crook’s Corner, the point where South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe meet.

Their green Ford Ranger double cab was missing. It was recovered in Chókwè in Mozambique on 26 May, and that recovery led investigators to the suspects.

Limpopo police spokesperson Brigadier Hlulani Mashaba said 2 Mozambican nationals aged 32 and 33 were arrested and positively linked to the crime. The first was arrested in Chókwè on 1 June and the second in Xai-Xai, Gaza province, on 2 June. Lionel Makandza and Lucas Chitlhango face 2 counts of murder and the theft of the bakkie.

A third suspect, Macandze Lionel da Marta, fled to Zimbabwe. He was tracked down there and extradited to Mozambique. Rapport understands there is not enough evidence to link him to the murders.

The promise

On 3 June the then Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Willie Aucamp, put out a statement welcoming the arrests.

He said he had spoken to his colleagues in the Department of International Relations and Cooperation and the Department of Justice about the importance of securing the suspects’ return to South Africa to face the full might of the law. He then said South Africa would start the formal extradition process to get the suspects here to stand trial.

That statement is still on the department’s website.

The refusal

Mozambique’s director of judicial cooperation has since written to the National Prosecuting Authority to say the men will not be handed over, on the grounds of their nationality.

The letter, reported by Rapport, says it is their considered opinion that the men should be prosecuted in Mozambique, that criminal proceedings have already started, and that they are relying on South Africa to cooperate promptly in collecting and sending over what is needed for the case.

Read as what it is, that letter is a request. Mozambique is asking South Africa for the evidence.

The family

Piet Marais, Ernst’s brother, told Rapport the family was not informed of the decision.

He said nobody has ever spoken to them and that he has not received a single call from a police officer. He said it makes no sense to him that the men are not being extradited when the murder was committed here.

South Africa’s Service Charter for Victims of Crime says a victim and a victim’s family have the right to be kept informed about what is happening in their case. On Piet Marais’s account, that did not happen at any point between the minister’s promise in June and the refusal becoming public in September.

Why the extradition was never available

Article 67 of the Constitution of the Republic of Mozambique says no Mozambican citizen may be expelled or extradited from the national territory.

There is no exception in that provision for murder, and no discretion for a Mozambican minister to exercise. The rule is published online in English translation and it is well known to anyone working on cross-border prosecutions in this region.

So the answer South Africa received in September was available in May, before the arrests were made and before the promise was given.

This is my own reading of a translated foreign constitution and I am not a lawyer. If the Department of Justice can point to a route that would have worked, I will publish it.

Two departments, two answers

Department of Justice spokesperson Palesa Rammitlwa told Rapport the department never lodged a formal extradition request, because the NPA never asked it to.

Department of International Relations and Cooperation spokesperson Chrispin Phiri said South Africa and Mozambique do not have an extradition agreement.

Those are 2 different reasons for the same outcome, and neither of them is the reason the extradition failed. The constitutional bar is.

What happens now

A senior police officer close to the investigation told Rapport the SAPS will hand the docket to the Mozambican authorities. He said he had spoken to the investigators there about a month ago, that he had confidence in their processes, and that he was surprised by how professional they were.

He said they are still waiting on DNA results from 2 pairs of shoes recovered at the scene. The couple’s bank cards were also recovered and fingerprints were taken.

Makandza and Chitlhango remain in custody.

There is a fair case that Mozambique has behaved well here. They made the arrests within days, they have charged the men, and they have asked for the evidence rather than waiting to be offered it. A conviction in Maputo is still a conviction.

That answers the extradition complaint. It does not answer the other one. A South African family now has no case number to follow, no prosecutor they can phone in a language they speak, no courtroom they can realistically attend, and no South African official who carries responsibility for the outcome.

The state identified the suspects, recovered the vehicle in another country and made both arrests inside 2 weeks. Nearly 4 months later, on the family’s account, it has not made one phone call to Mossel Bay.