The Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday authorised a warrant for the arrest of British tourist Anthony Cooper, who allegedly started a massive fire on Table Mountain during last-year’s festive season.
He is also charged with drunken driving and failed to appear in court on that charge on Tuesday.
Magistrate Ingrid Freitag set June 9 as the return date for the arrest warrant in the drunken driving charge, and provisionally forfeited his R500 bail.
The charge sheet gave no details of the drunken-driving charge, other than that Cooper (36) was arrested in Sea Point on January 24, and was released by the Sea Point police on R500 bail.
In the drunken driving case, Cooper made his first appearance in court on January 26, when he chose to conduct his own defence, and the case was postponed to May 23 for the result of his forensic blood test.
Cooper’s case on the arson charge related to the Table Mountain fire is also pending, and he is likely to go on trial for this in the Cape Town regional court on a date still to be fixed. — Sapa