Johannesburg - Wearing tailored black suits and with every shiny hair in place and styled to perfection, Gareth de Nysschen and Demis Karamitsos looked the dapper businessmen that they are.
Their just-stepped-out-of-a-glossy-magazine looks were in sharp contrast to the four men sitting alongside them in the dock, who wore creased clothes. One was on crutches sporting a makeshift Mohawk hairstyle.
The four men had spent the night behind bars, sleeping in the clothes they were arrested in, before appearing in the Lenasia Magistrate’s Court on Monday for unrelated charges.
De Nysschen and Karamitsos were in court over allegations of the illegal sale of army ammunition relating to charges of theft of ammunition that Teboho Peter Motaung and his colleague Diphang John Motloung are facing.
Motaung and Motloung, who are both soldiers serving at the Lenasia army base, allegedly sold the state’s ammunition illegally.
They were arrested on April 26 and granted bail on May 15. But shortly afterwards, Motloung’s bail was revoked and he was rearrested together with his son Thabang.
It is alleged that he and his son threatened the investigating officer and that Motloung also contravened his bail conditions by phoning some of the witnesses with whom he was supposed to have had no contact.
De Nysschen and Karamitsos, who work for Dave Sheer Guns - the biggest trader in firearms and ammunition in Africa - were arrested last week.
Their charges have not been formulated yet, but prosecutor Thapelo Mohapi said their court appearance was to include them in the trial of Motaung and the Motloungs.
The two were expected to apply for bail on Tuesday.
While the Motloungs are being kept at Johannesburg Prison, their lawyer, Annelene van den Heever, requested that they be detained at Lenasia police station so that she could to consult with them.
The State did not oppose the application.
After the case was postponed, De Nysschen and Karamitsos’s friends and relatives gathered outside the court to speak to Van den Heever.
The Star