HA-LUVHIMBI - Eight schoolchildren of Bababa Secondary School, near Makonde, are still languishing in prison cells because there is no magistrate to give or deny them bail.

The eight youths were arrested together with one older person, Khathuthselo Makhuvha, on 16 July, on the day that schools re-opened.

All of them were charged with abduction, public violence, assault and malicious damage to property. Their arrest came after an unrest situation that happened in the area, after the school children stormed out of classes and started blocking the roads in protest against the alleged ritual murder of Awelani Albert Nemakhavhani, who died at the age of forty.

Nemakhavhani, a gardener, went missing on 13 July. His decomposed body was later found next to the Ngwedi River. The school children and some community members became angry after the family members of Nemakhavhani complained that his body had allegedly been found in a spot that they had already searched.

The family also complained because the people who discovered Nekamakhavhani's body called the police and mortuary car before they (the family) were informed.

The nine accused people were to appear in the Thohoyandou Magistrate's Court last Wednesday, but they could not appear because the investigating officer was not there.

The hope of the accused to be released on bail proved fruitless again on 29 July, as they did not appear because there was no magistrate to handle their bail application in Thohoyandou for the whole week.

Civic leader, Mr Simon Nthathedzeni Sivhidzho, said they were going to have a mass meeting to see how they could help the pupils get out of prison so that they could study with others.

Sivhidzo said they were also concerned because some of the arrested pupils are doing matric and they are supposed to be writing their trial exams. The civic organisation has already collected money for the legal representative of the nine accused.