The Krugersdorp Regional Court has been asked to grant bail of between R5 000 and R10 000 to Mulalo Sivhidzo, who is accused of killing her husband, Avhatakali Netshisaulu, the son of City Press editor Mathatha Tsedu.
Netshisaulu (31) was found dead in the boot of his burnt car in Muldersdrift, north of Johannesburg, hours after going to visit a man about setting up a phone business on the night of December 7 last year.
Sivhidzo’s lawyer, Dolph Jonker, told the court on Monday that the state had a weak case and accused it of trying to delay and frustrate the judicial system.
A relative offered Sivhidzo a place to stay in Johannesburg after a police official testified that it had not yet been determined whether she would be allowed to stay at police flats in Triomf with another relative.
Jonker told the court Sivhidzo’s suspension from her police job was only effective while she was in detention.
He also submitted that she was not a flight risk because the public knew her face from media photographs and she did not have the means to abscond.
At a previous, uncompleted bail application this month, the court had heard that Sivhidzo allegedly hired one of her five co-accused, Ntambudzeni Mutsenene (29), to kill her husband as she stood to gain more financially from his death than a divorce. The couple had been married less than a year
When Sivhidzo walked into the courtroom on Monday from the holding cells with her co-accused, all men, she only glanced at the packed gallery. Among those in court was Tsedu himself.
The hearing was postponed to Wednesday. — Sapa