/ 29 November 2010

‘Bad Brad’ gets bail

Former Big Brother celebrity Brad Wood was granted R15 000 bail when he and three others appeared in the Benoni Magistrate’s Court on Monday, Wood said.

“It went well. I got R15 000 bail and I need to return to court on January 27,” he said in a telephonic interview with South African Press Association.

The other accused received R2 000 bail each.

He said on January 27 the case would be transferred to the North Gauteng High Court for proceedings to start.

“We have been charged with four counts of murder and six of attempted murder.”

Wood and his co-accused handed themselves in to Benoni police on Monday morning for their alleged role in deaths of four illegal miners at the Aurora Grootvlei mine in Springs.

Aurora spokesperson Thulani Ngubane said the company did not want to comment on the matter.

Despite the incident, Wood said he was still an Aurora employee. Court proceedings were completed around noon and he said he was glad to be back home. However he was disgusted with the conditions in which detainees were transferred to the court in police vans.

“There were 40 easily squashed into one van.”

However he was “100% happy to get things going” and said they had co-operated with the police since day one.

“The truth must come out and will come out.”

The Star named the other accused as security guard Nicolas Pretorius and mine captains Herbie Trouw and Willem Coetzer. — Sapa