In a surprise move the man accused of murdering an eight-year-old Plettenberg Bay girl has decided to apply for bail about seven months after initially turning the option down.
The 18-year-old suspect Lulama Candani was set to briefly appear in the Plettenberg Bay Magistrate's Court on Thursday for a trial date to be set after the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) made a decision to transfer the case to the Knysna Circuit High Court earlier this month.
Candani had initially turned down the option to apply for bail after his arrest on December 9 last year, but yesterday indicated that he now wanted to.
The matter was therefore postponed for bail application on September 11, before his trial is set to start in the high court on November 23.
Candani was arrested last year after he handed himself over to Knysna police and voluntarily showed police where the body of Sesona Bhayibhile was dumped.
He allegedly slit the little girl's throat a day before his arrest and dumped her body in dense bushes just a few metres from her home in Bossiegif on the outskirts of Plettenberg Bay.
Yolande Stander
Garden Route Media
