VUSI KHEKHE MATHIBELA ABANDONS BAIL APPLICATION.

Vusi Khekhe Mathibela alongside his co-accused appeared in the Pretoria magistrate court yesterday Monday 18 March for their bail hearing. Elias Skhosana, Stemer Monageng, and Vusi ‘Khekhe’ Mathibela are arrested for alleged extortion and intimidation of business people in Mamelodi.

There will be no ruling on whether or not Mathibela will get bail however as he abandoned his bail application, stating that he believed his arrest was unlawful. He claims the police arrested him without a warrant and has revealed that he plans to challenge his arrest before the High Court.

The bail application of Skhosana and Monageng, meanwhile, was postponed to March 22. Vusi Mathibela lawyers argued that his arrest was unlawful and should be set aside because procedures weren’t followed but the magistrate dismissed the argument. Khekhe was arrested after handing himself over to the police in Germiston, Ekurhuleni, last Tuesday.

He instead instructed his counsel to lodge an urgent high court application at the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, to challenge the legality of his arrest. Skhosana and Monageng, who were arrested on March 8, submitted affidavits stating that the court did not need to keep them in police custody for justice to be served smoothly.

Defence lawyer Solomon Mkhabela read his client’s affidavit confirming that Skhosana was denying all allegations against him and intended to plead not guilty on all the charges. Monageng’s defence lawyer Mpesi Makhanya said his client was also not a danger to society and had a total of 46 employees between his businesses and he needed to be home to oversee operations.

Makhanya said his client was also the breadwinner in his family and was taking care of some of his youngest children, eight grandchildren and three of his unemployed siblings and an aunt. He argued that his client should be released as he had no intentions to interfere with the police investigations.

The magistrate said it was too late to rule on the pair’s bail hearing, as she had to attend to another matter at 2pm and had been waiting for the defence team since 9am.“It’s not my fault. If we started at 9, we would’ve been done by 1,” she said, before announcing the postponement.

Mathibela and his co-accused will remain behind bars in the interim.

BY: DAVE BALO.