AfriForum announced at a media conference in Centurion today that Adv. Gerrie Nel, Head of the civil rights organisation\u2019s Private Prosecution Unit, will be supporting the Jimmy family against Ford Motor Company after Reshall\u00a0Jimmy burnt to death in December 2015 when the Ford Kuga he was driving caught alight.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThe criminal justice system of South Africa failed the victim in this case. The family has been waiting for almost three years for the case to be investigated and AfriForum wrote letters imploring the Magistrate\u2019s Court in George to hold a formal inquest,\u201d Nel states.<\/p>\n
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) decided not to prosecute Ford and denied the family a nolle prosequi certificate because they were awaiting the result of the inquest. AfriForum has monitored and assisted with the process leading up to the announcement of a formal inquest to be held before a Judge of the High Court, which will start on 4\u00a0February\u00a02019.<\/p>\n
Nel adds that it is unacceptable that international corporate bullies like Ford regard themselves as above the law: \u201cWe were astonished that Ford seized all communication with the victims and, during discussion with the family, made statements like \u2018we have deep pockets\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
AfriForum\u2019s Private Prosecution Unit will represent the family during the inquest and hope to obtain a clear, unequivocal response from Ford regarding the status of the expert report that was received from a Mr. Young shortly after the incident. \u201cWe believe that this information will support the family\u2019s version of the events surrounding the fire, among others that the fire was caused by a mechanical fault. Interestingly, according to our knowledge, Ford obtained two expert reports about the possible cause of the fire but have made neither available to the family and\/or the SAPS,\u201d says Nel.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Since AfriForum\u2019s involvement, Ford appointed private legal representatives to \u2018continue the dialogue\u2019 but the civil rights organisation experienced, like the family has over the past three years, an absence of any real attempt to communicate. According to Nel, this case is a further step in AfriForum\u2019s strategy to establish the concept of private prosecution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
AfriForum announced at a media conference in Centurion today that Adv. Gerrie Nel, Head of the civil rights organisation\u2019s Private…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":301,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[11159],"tags":[9435,9165,9282,9436,7939,802,9437,9284,329,8088,7846,9438,9439,7637,803,9440,649],"class_list":["post-18862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives","tag-burnt","tag-criminal-justice-system","tag-death","tag-deep-pockets","tag-fire","tag-ford-kuga","tag-ford-motor-company","tag-formal-inquest","tag-gerrie-nel","tag-investigate","tag-justice","tag-magistrates-court","tag-mechanical-fault","tag-private-prosecution","tag-reshall-jimmy","tag-respresent","tag-trauma"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":11159,"label":"Archives"}],"post_tag":[{"value":9435,"label":"burnt"},{"value":9165,"label":"criminal justice system"},{"value":9282,"label":"death"},{"value":9436,"label":"deep pockets"},{"value":7939,"label":"fire"},{"value":802,"label":"Ford Kuga"},{"value":9437,"label":"Ford Motor Company"},{"value":9284,"label":"formal inquest"},{"value":329,"label":"Gerrie Nel"},{"value":8088,"label":"investigate"},{"value":7846,"label":"justice"},{"value":9438,"label":"Magistrate\u2019s Court"},{"value":9439,"label":"mechanical fault"},{"value":7637,"label":"Private prosecution"},{"value":803,"label":"Reshall Jimmy"},{"value":9440,"label":"respresent"},{"value":649,"label":"Trauma"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"","author_link":"https:\/\/www.artikels.afriforum.co.za\/en\/author\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":11159,"name":"Archives","slug":"archives","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":11159,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":1052,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":11159,"category_count":1052,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Archives","category_nicename":"archives","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":9435,"name":"burnt","slug":"burnt","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":9435,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":9165,"name":"criminal justice system","slug":"criminal-justice-system","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":9165,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":9282,"name":"death","slug":"death","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":9282,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":9,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":9436,"name":"deep pockets","slug":"deep-pockets","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":9436,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":7939,"name":"fire","slug":"fire","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":7939,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":16,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":802,"name":"Ford Kuga","slug":"ford-kuga","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":802,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":7,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":9437,"name":"Ford Motor Company","slug":"ford-motor-company","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":9437,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":9284,"name":"formal inquest","slug":"formal-inquest","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":9284,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":3,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":329,"name":"Gerrie Nel","slug":"gerrie-nel","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":329,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":123,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":8088,"name":"investigate","slug":"investigate","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":8088,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":4,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":7846,"name":"justice","slug":"justice","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":7846,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":16,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":9438,"name":"Magistrate\u2019s Court","slug":"magistrates-court","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":9438,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":9439,"name":"mechanical fault","slug":"mechanical-fault","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":9439,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":7637,"name":"Private prosecution","slug":"private-prosecution","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":7637,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":41,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":803,"name":"Reshall Jimmy","slug":"reshall-jimmy","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":803,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":17,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":9440,"name":"respresent","slug":"respresent","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":9440,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":649,"name":"Trauma","slug":"trauma","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":649,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":35,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artikels.afriforum.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artikels.afriforum.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artikels.afriforum.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artikels.afriforum.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artikels.afriforum.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18862"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.artikels.afriforum.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25964,"href":"https:\/\/www.artikels.afriforum.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18862\/revisions\/25964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artikels.afriforum.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artikels.afriforum.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artikels.afriforum.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}