Afriforum
A Free State businessman who spent the weekend behind bars on terrorism charges will hear on Tuesday if he is granted bail.
The 51-year-old Senekal man is facing a charge of attempted murder, malicious damage to property, public violence and terrorism.
Magistrate Buti Mlangeni reserved judgement on Friday on the matter of the State versus the accused.
The suspect is accused of inciting violence and also threatening and assaulting a female officer by throttling her during an incident outside the
Magistrates Court in Senekal last week where two suspects were appearing in connection with the murder of young farm manager Brendin Horner.
The Freedom Front (FF Plus) have identified the 51-year-old as Andre Pienaar and his name has also been shared widely on several social media platforms.
Meanwhile, the FF Plus has questioned the State's charges of terrorism and attempted murder against Pienaar and accused the National Prosecuting Authority of double standards.
FF Plus leader Dr Pieter Groenewald says there were no lives in danger at the Senekal protest and therefore a charge of attempted murder, which is a serious charge, is unacceptable.
He also referred to the EFF’s conduct during the much publicised Clicks protests where no-one faced charges of such a serious nature.
In Pienaar's case the State believes that he influenced a group of protestors to destroy court property and set a police van alight.
However, his defence team has dismissed the State's testimony as pure speculation.
The defence further accused the State of "arresting to investigate" rather than to investigate to arrest. The defence added that the State does not have evidence that the accused influenced or incited the violence.
The State is opposing the bail.
Last Tuesday's violence followed the appearance of two men arrested in connection with the murder of 21-year-old farm manager Brendin Horner.
The 32-year-old Sekwetje Mahlamba and 44-year-old Sekola Matlaletsa appeared in the Senekal Magistrate’s Court before the chaos erupted outside the court building.
In his weekly newsletter on Monday, President Cyril Ramaphosa broke his silence on the murder of Horner and the protests that followed outside the Senekal Magistrate’s Court.
He referred to Horner's murder as an appalling act of cruelty. "No matter who we are, no matter what community we live in, no matter our race, creed or language, we should be as deeply affected by the death of Brendin Horner as we are by the many other South Africans who die violent deaths each year, " he wrote.
Ramaphosa said the brutal killing of a young white farmer, allegedly by black men, followed by the spectacle of white farmers storming a police station to get to a black suspect had opened up wounds that go back many generations.
Read Ramaphosa's full newsletter here:
