The extortion case against Mpumalanga taxi boss Joe “Ferrari” Sibanyoni and his co-accused will only be re-enrolled on Thursday.
This is according to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago.
“The matter will be re-enrolled tomorrow [Thursday] at Delmas magistrate’s court,” he said.
Their case was struck off the roll last week by magistrate Tuletu Tonjeni at the Kwaggafontein magistrate’s court after prosecutor Mkhuseli Ntaba failed to appear in court for the bail continuation of Sibanyoni, Bafana Sindane, Mvimbi Masilela and Philemon Msiza.
Kganyago also confirmed that prosecutor Ntaba remains on precautionary suspension pending the outcome of an internal investigation.
This comes after the NPA filed a formal complaint against Tonjeni, who found Ntaba in contempt of a court order after he failed to show up in court.
We are doing internal investigations around all the circumstances. We don’t want a situation where we don’t look at everything and they come back to bite us
— Kaizer Kganyago, NPA spokesperson
“The suspension is precautionary; it is meant for our internal investigation to happen, which is happening. Then once it is done, we will know what the next step is from here,” said Kganyago.
“We are doing internal investigations around all the circumstances. We don’t want a situation where we don’t look at everything and they come back to bite us.”
The NPA has also filed an appeal application against the contempt of court order.
On Monday Kganyago said they have filed a formal complaint with the magistrate commission against Tonjeni as they are concerned about her conduct. Kganyago said they are concerned about the language that was used by Tonjeni and how she handled the case.
Sibanyoni and his co-accused are accused of extorting R2m from businessman Thomas Ntuli between 2022 and 2025. The money is alleged to have been a protection fee to allow him to operate his mine in Kwaggafontein. He laid charges against Sibanyoni and others in November last year.
The accused have all denied the allegations.
Sowetan
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