Former Knysna mayor Thando Matika and two senior municipal officials will remain in custody until next week after appearing in court over allegations that they demanded about R510,000 from a service provider and threatened to cancel his tender if he did not pay.
Matika, acting municipal manager Manqoba Ngubo and acting financial services director Busisiwe Lubelwana appeared in the Knysna magistrate’s court on Monday.
This follows their arrests by the Political Killings Task Team on Thursday.
They will appear in court on Monday next week for a bail application despite objections from lawyers representing Ngubo and Matika.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said the three faced charges of corruption, money laundering and extortion.
Matika faces an additional corruption charge.
He said further charges could be added as the investigation continued.
“The arrests relate to allegations that the three officials organised a tender for a service provider and later demanded money from the successful service provider,” Ntabazalila said.
The service provider allegedly paid money into bank accounts supplied to him and made cash payments totalling about R510,000.
The state alleges he was threatened with cancellation of his tender if he failed to make the payments.
The state sought a seven-day postponement to verify the accused’s addresses and obtain further evidence it said would be relevant to the bail proceedings.
Ngubo, accused number one, has addresses in Durban and Knysna, while Lubelwana, accused number two, has an address in the Eastern Cape.
Ngubo’s lawyer, Carl Jeppe, said the defence would accept the postponement only if it was specifically for a bail application.
Matika’s lawyer, Hardy Wills of Boqwana Burns Inc, asked that the matter be postponed to Thursday.
He argued that the allegations stemmed from a Special Investigating Unit investigation that started more than three years ago and that the state should already have had the relevant information.
Wills told the court Matika had neither been questioned nor investigated since his arrest and challenged the state’s request for a further seven days to prepare.
He said Matika had owned property and lived in Knysna for about 15 years and that his address was not under investigation.
The state countered that the investigation remained active and was developing daily.
The state argued that the arrests had taken place only on October 1, leaving insufficient time to gather and verify all the information needed for the bail proceedings.
Wills also asked that Matika’s bail application be heard on Thursday or Friday so he could attend his father’s funeral on Saturday.
However, the state and other lawyers indicated they were unavailable on those days and could return only the following Monday.
After the postponement, Wills raised difficulties the defence had experienced in consulting Matika.
He said Matika had initially been detained in George, then moved to Knysna and later Plettenberg Bay.
Wills requested that he be held in Knysna to give his legal team better access while preparing for bail.
He also said this would allow SACP members easier access to Matika, the party’s mayoral candidate.
Matika and Ngubo will be held at Knysna police station, while Lubelwana will remain at Plettenberg Bay police station.
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