Prosecutors at the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on Monday opposed another postponement of the bail application of Tshifhiwa Reuben Radzhadzi, the man arrested for trying to swindle convicted murderer Oscar Pistorius.
“The State is going to oppose that application for a postponement. The accused cannot stand here and say he didn’t know how the State was going to proceed today. I find it unacceptable. I get a feeling that the accused is going to try play cat and mouse with me,” said Prosecutor Willem van Zyl.
He said Radzhadzi was involved in a bid to unnecessarily delay the bail application process and to establish what the prosecution had against him.
Monday was Radzhadzi’s third appearance before the court. During the initial appearance on March 22, the matter was postponed because the State wanted to verify some aspects including the existence of a warrant of arrest Radzhadzi. When the state was ready to proceed on March 24, Radzhadzi requested a postponement as he had replaced his lawyer, Advocate Mpesi Makhanya with another representative only identified as advocate Mkauzi.
On Monday, Radzhadzi fired Mkauzi and reinstated his initial counsel, Makhanya.
Since Makhanya had only been reinstated to the case on Sunday evening, he told the court that he was unable to proceed with the bail application.
“There is no prejudice on the State at this stage if this matter is postponed. On the part of the defence, I need to take proper instructions (from Radzhadzi). It puts me in a difficult position as a legal representative to proceed with this matter simply because the State wants to,” said Makhanya.
He said Van Zyl’s assertion that Radzhadzi was playing a game of cat and mouse were “unfortunate”.
Postponing the matter to next week, magistrate Nicca Setshogoe noted that it would be an injustice if Radzhadzi’s detention in custody becomes prolonged.
She said, however, Makhanya had made a case for the matter to be postponed to Tuesday next week.
The court heard on Monday that the amount involved in the attempted scam was R350,000.
On March 22, Radzhadzi had also requested medical attention during his first appearance.
Covering his head throughout the court session, the 33-year-old told the court that he had kidney-related ailments and did not have medication.
Radzhadzi faces a charge of corruption and a possible additional charge of extortion.
Radzhadzi allegedly called Pistorius, claiming to be a National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) official, and is alleged to have said “prosecutor Gerrie Nel is in his team”. The State alleges he told the disgraced former paralympian that for R350,000, he could make his case disappear.
Pistorius agreed to pay a deposit of R40,000 and then contacted the police. A trap was set and the impostor was arrested by the Hawks in Pretoria on March 18, near the High Court.
Van Zyl has told the court that Radzhadzi did not work at the NPA. Pistorius was not present during the court case.
Radzhadzi was arrested immediately after accepting the R40,000 deposit in person from an unnamed source.
Pistorius will be back in the high court in June, to be sentenced for the murder of his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
He is facing a possible 15 years in prison for the 2013 Valentine’s Day murder at his posh Pretoria East home.
Judge Thokozile Masipa initially found Pistorius guilty of culpable homicide and sentenced him to five years. The sentence was changed to murder by the Supreme Court of Appeal, after which the Constitutional Court turned down Pistorius’s appeal.
Pistorius spent almost a year in the Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Centre before being released to serve the remainder of his earlier sentence under house arrest.
– African News Agency (ANA)
