Former EFF MPL to spend another weekend in jail
Wele and his co-accused have so far spent 23 days in custody
Former EFF MPL Themba Wele and four others will spend their fourth weekend behind bars after their bail bid in a fraud case was held over to Monday.
East London magistrate Linda Magaxeni on Thursday postponed the matter to Monday as the accused’s defence team needed more time to question the investigating officer, Sgt Lawrence Dyakalashe.
Dyakalashe opposed the bail of Wele, 40, and his co-accused Xolani Fani, 48, Noludwe Mkiva, 38, Thembile Ndibaza, 67, and Bonginkosi Mabhula, 45, on the grounds that they might interfere with the witnesses, who are close relatives, and even destroy evidence.
Wele and his co-accused have so far spent 23 days in custody following their arrests on January 27 in connection with illegal sale of land on the government-owned Greydell farm near the East London Airport.
They were arrested for fraud during a joint intelligence operation led by police, and the court heard they were influential in the two informal settlements, Bhongweni and Airport Park, on the farm, where they are alleged to have been selling plots for thousands of rand.
Dyakalashe told Magaxeni there were 600 structures erected on the farm worth R2.2m and witnesses, feeling threatened, had called him to report a suspicious car in the area.
He said he had profiled the accused and found that, though all of them had supplied correct addresses, Wele had four different residential addresses.
He said at Wele’s residences no one wanted to speak to him. He confirmed that all five accused were unemployed and were community committee leaders in Airport Park.
Dyakalashe said Wele had been previously charged with malicious damage to property, but those charges were withdrawn.
He said Mabhula was convicted of theft in 2009 and served time in jail, and that Fani had been sentenced to two years in jail for stealing a vehicle.
The case resumes on Monday.