Marikana activist Napoleon Webster and the five other people were granted R4000 bail each at the Bafokeng Magistrate’s Court in Tlhabane on Friday.
Webster is accused of escaping from lawful custody, five other men charged with him are facing charges of aiding and abetting a suspect to escape. The case was postponed to April 6.
Webster was arrested on January 6, after a group of his supporters allegedly freed him from police custody after he was arrested at court in Tlhabane on a murder charge.
The group allegedly armed with spears, stones and pangas, advanced towards the police vehicle and attempted to release him.
The police fired warning shots of which the men ignored and in the process managed to free him, got inside a minibus taxi and fled the scene.
The police gave chase and the men abandoned the minibus taxi after the police shot its wheels resulting and a tyre deflated at Mokwena Street in Tlhabane. They were arrested together with Webster, who was still handcuffed.
Webster was attending court proceeding when he was arrested on a murder charge that was allegedly committed at Marikana West on December 8.
He was handcuffed and put inside a police vehicle that was parked near the court entrance, after he was put inside a police vehicle, the group managed to free him.
The others including taxi driver Sandile Zulu were arrested in Tlhabane hiding, one of them hide in an outside toilet.
Zulu, 41, was granted R2000 bail on February 1, his case was postponed to March 14 for investigation. His bail application was not opposed.
Webster was expected to appear in the Rustenburg Magistrate’s Court on Monday to apply for bail on a charge of murder.
The Sate alleges that Aubrey Seitsang, Sibonile Sobopha, Mdlondozi Fundiwo, Herbert Baqhesi, William Nyanyane and Napoleon Webster hacked Sabata Petros Chale, 39, to death in Marikana West, on December 8 last year.
The bail application is opposed.
– African News Agency (ANA)
