The group allegedly responsible for the kidnapping and extortion of a Dutch national has been waiting a month for a bail application.
But their difficulty in assembling a legal team saw the case postponed yet again on Thursday.
The six are accused of kidnapping businessman Edo de Ronde from his hotel after he flew in from the Netherlands, lured in by what police believe to be a 419 scam.
Four of the accused, Richard Ogbozor, Chinedu Ikedi, James Ifemetu and Christiaan Offiah, are Nigerians alleged to have been working with South Africans Nicholas Smith and Tracey Harrop.
The six alleged scammers appeared at the Randburg Magistrate’s Court on Thursday for their bail application, but after Ogbozor’s lawyer removed himself from the case because of a lack of payment from his client, the proceedings ground to a halt.
It took several hours for Legal Aid SA to assign a new representative, Thokozani Nkabinde, who is also representing Smith.
Three other lawyers are representing the remaining four accused, but the shuffling of the legal team and time constraints left the magistrate with no other option but to postpone the application until the week after next.
While the four Nigerian accused remained stoic as they appeared before court, Smith and Harrop were visibly upset after the postponement.
A teary-eyed Smith could be seen mouthing words to his mother and pregnant girlfriend in the gallery as he was returned to cells below the court.
One month after their arrest, family members of both Harrop and Smith have expressed concern for the two, but wouldn’t speak to the media.
According to Hawks spokesman McIntosh Polela, De Ronde’s company, European China Centre Rotterdam, had been pursuing a R42 million scrap metal contract and had sent him to South Africa to confirm the deal.
However, after arriving in the country on July 6, he was kept bound at a guesthouse in Olivedale for almost two days, while his captors allegedly tried to extort $15 000 (R100 500) from his boss.
These scams, also known as advanced-fee fraud, were named after section 419 in the Nigerian Criminal Code that deals with money laundering. - The Star