Cape Town - Jason Rohde, former South African head of the property group Sotheby’s International Realty, is to go on trial in October, in the Western Cape High Court, for the alleged murder of his wife, Susan.
He made his second to last appearance in the Stellenbosch District Court on Friday, before senior Magistrate Greg Jacobs.
He was warned to appear again on July 25, when the High Court indictment is to be formally handed to him and his defence team.
At Friday’s proceedings, State advocate Louis van Niekerk replaced Carien Teunissen, both senior officials in the Western Cape Directorate for Public Prosecutions.
Van Niekerk told the court that the case would be transferred to the High Court at the next hearing in Stellenbosch.
He is charged with the alleged murder of his wife in their hotel room at the Spier Estate near Stellenbosch.
The couple lived in Johannesburg, but were in Stellenbosch together for a Sotheby’s International Realty conference.
Susan and Jason Rohde
At his appearance in August last year, he was released on bail of R1.1 million – R100,000 had to be paid immediately, to secure his release from police custody, and the R1 million in the form of a commercial bank guarantee, that had to be lodged with the court administration.
One of his bail conditions at the time was was that he had to stay at an undisclosed address in Melkbos, on the Cape west coast, and report regularly at the Melkbos police station.
At subsequent proceedings, his defence counsel, Peter Mihalik, requested that he be allowed to return to his Johannesburg home, to be with his daughters.
His trial date in the High Court has been scheduled for October 9.