Vuso Tega, the truck driver behind a Volvo truck that collided with six cars and four trucks leaving two people dead, is now on the run after his bail was forfeited to the state on Thursday.
Tega failed to attend two appearances in the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court.
On Thursday, magistrate Wendalynn Robinson forfeited his R10 000 bail and also authorised a warrant of his arrest to be executed by the SAPS.
State prosecutor Nomcebo Xulu told the court that the day after Tega’s warrant was issued, his attorney Samil Garbaran came to court to inform the court that he intended withdrawing as Tega’s legal counsel, however, he was not before the court on Wednesday.
Pradhil Thakur Kooblall, son of Minority Front leader, Shameen Thakur Rajbansi, and Kooblall’s fiancée, Priyanka Nunkumar died in the collision.
It is alleged that Tega wrongfully and negligently caused the deaths, and he faces alternative counts of reckless and negligent driving.
Anesh Maharaj, who represented the Rajbansi family on the last occasion on a watching brief for Shameen Rajbansi, on Wednesday sent a colleague to stand in for him.
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“The State’s failure to grant us justice does not mean that we will sit back placidly and allow the situation to continue. These further steps would be against all parties responsible for this. We do not want to point fingers at the State. We also intend to take steps to get Tega back into court, we intend to locate him and ensure that the long arm of the law gets to him.” Maharaj said.
He added that the family was disappointed in both the justice system and the State.
“They both have let them down, taking into consideration that he is a foreigner that within a short period after his arrest following the incident, the State rushed in and granted him bail …
“The fact is that the investigation was not complete relating to the condition of the truck as to whether he was either negligent or deliberately caused the collision and particularly taking into account the public outcry relating to accidents involving trucks in KwaZulu-Natal,” he said.
Maharaj said that with the large number of people being killed on the province’s roads, his client believed that the State should have been more circumspect in granting bail.
Nunkumar’s father Adhrish Nunkumar said he hoped that the police would be able to bring Tega back in and also implored the driver to come out from wherever he was. – Daily News
