The outcome of the ANCs long-awaited KwaZulu-Natal conference was a win for the Thuma Mina crowd. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
PRETORIA, June 1 (ANA) – The Pretoria Magistrate’s Court has provisionally withdrawn charges of theft against two of the three men suspected of stealing R17 million in foreign currency
from the State Security Agency’s (SSA) headquarters in December last year.
The prosecution told Magistrate Adriaan Bekker on Wednesday that the State was provisionally withdrawing the theft charges against Khayalethu Mgatyelwa and Albert Ramabele, while a
postponement date on the matter against the remaining accused, William Mmotong, who is a VIP Protector within the SSA, was requested.
The prosecution said it needed the matter to be postponed for further investigations. However, Mmotong’s lawyer, advocate Joshua Mashao, objected the request, saying that the State had told the court in the previous sitting that enough evidence had been gathered for the matter to proceed to trial.
Mashao requested that disclosures on the case be made, however the State argued that disclosures would be made on the requested postponement date.
Bekker postponed the case against Mmotong to July 11 and extended his bail.
Spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Luvuyo Mfaku, said afterwards that the State had decided to provisionally withdraw the charges against Mgatyelwa and Ramabele because there was no strong evidence implicating them at the moment.
“The evidence we had could not be corroborated or strengthened by expert evidence which is still outstanding, however we will revisit our decision once this evidence is obtained,” said Mfaku.
Suspended SSA security guard, Mgatyelwa, and Ramabele, a panel-beater by profession, looked relieved and celebrated the withdrawal of the charges against them with their family members outside court.
The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks) arrested the three accused separately earlier this year for their alleged involvement in the brazen break-in into the SSA headquarters in Pretoria on December 27 last year.
Ramabele and Mmotong were released on a R10,000 bail each, while Mgatyelwa was granted bail of R5,000.
– African News Agency (ANA)
Disclaimer: This story is pulled directly from the African News Agency wire, and has not been edited by Mail & Guardian staff. The M&G does not accept responsibility for errors in any statement, quote or extract that may be contained therein.