Port Elizabeth – An alleged bogus lawyer, charged with fraud, abandoned her bail application brought on new facts, in the Port Elizabeth Commercial Crimes Court on Wednesday.
In addition, Brenda Wardle, who is conducting her own defence, said she would not be trial ready next week. She did not provide reasons to Magistrate Lionel Lindoor.
At her next court appearance Wardle will be expected to provide reasons to the trial magistrate as to why she cannot proceed.
A so-called legal analyst and author, Wardle, 56, was arrested in East London earlier in June after evading court for more than a year. She was denied bail.
Last month the court heard that Wardle was still not trial ready.
In August, Wardle complained she was battling with ill health while incarcerated in prison. Wardle has also since complained about prison conditions and not having access to resources while in jail.
Wardle, who has regularly provided analysis to news organisations for years, shot to fame during the highly publicised murder trial of Paralympian Oscar Pistorius.
She was interviewed on the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) TV and apparently published a book titled: “To Kill a Fragile Rose: The State’s Case Against Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius”.
The 56-year-old is accused of pretending to be a lawyer and offering “services” to a convicted murderer.
On her Linkedin profile, she claims she studied law at the University of South Africa (UNISA) for two years, in 2004 and 2005.
The State alleges that during April 2009 and August 2013, Wardle was paid R538 766 to assist jailed Stephanus van Aardt, who was requesting early release on parole.
The State alleges that Wardle pretended to be an attorney, but she failed to bring an application for Van Aardt’s early release.
Van Aardt, an Eastern Cape dairy farmer in Somerset East, who was convicted of murder in 2007 and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment for the assault and death of 15-year-old Eliot Magabane, was as a result not eligible to have his term of imprisonment commuted.
The case was postponed until October 10.