Fears were high yesterday that the lives of magistrates and judges might be under threat after the assassination of a senior magistrate in Cape Town, where 18 major bombs have been detonated in the past two years, writes Patrick Laurence in Johannesburg.
The magistrate, Mr Pieter Theron, was shot dead outside his home by unknown gunmen on Thursday evening. Mr Theron was the presiding magistrate in the trial of two members of People Against Drugs and Gangsterism, a mainly Muslim vigilante movement.
