Mpumalanga – The bail hearing of former Mpumalanga Agriculture MEC Mandla Msibi has been postponed to 19 October at the Nelspruit Magistrate court.
Msibi is accused of murder and attempted murder.
He was arrested on Monday and has been in custody since his arrest.
Court proceedings were short, considering it was only about the presentation of arguments from the state and the defence.
The defence counsel, advocate Coert Jordaan argued that it was in the interest of justice that Msibi as well as the other accused be released, mentioning a number of reasons among them being that they didn’t have previous convictions as well as pending cases besides the case which they were currently attending.
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Jordaan also stated that Msibi was not a flight-risk, had fixed [addresses] properties and had handed in his passport.
However, the state in its argument was very brief, stating that all they wanted to be considered was that bail conditions should be very strict and that the bail amount should be high because of the nature of the case.
Msibi and his co-accused were to remain in custody.
Meanwhile, Jordaan said the investigating officer in the murder case was accusing Msibi of murder because of what he called “the instigation by a certain section and because of politics”. He did not elaborate, EWN reported.
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Compiled by Reginald Nhlapo
