Tshwane - Four of the five Pretoria men accused of assaulting a black couple – Jacob Sono and his wife Dudu – at a KFC drive-through appeared in the Pretoria North Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.
The fifth accused, 23-year-old Marius Harding, who is in police custody, was not in court on Wednesday and an official told Magistrate Motlhoki Rapulana that there had been “complications” in bringing him before the court. Harding had abandoned his bail application at an earlier stage.
The case against the five men was postponed to November 9, as police are still busy with investigations. All five are expected in court when the case resumes in November.
On Tuesday, the High Court in Pretoria overturned the Rapulana’s decision of denying bail to 21-year-old Dicky Junior van Rooyen, Stephen Nel, 39, and Joshua Scholtz, 21.
The trio had appealed to the superior court, after Rapulana denied them bail in August.
In denying the trio bail, Rapulana cited the seriousness of the charges they face, and the public outcry which followed the much publicised incident which took place at a KFC drive-through in Pretoria north, on August 3.
Ockert Muller, 20, had been granted bail by police soon after the incident happened, and Rapulana had extended his R5 000 bail.
However, this week, North Gauteng High Court Acting Judge Andre Petersen overturned Rapulana’s decision, and granted bail of R5 000 each to Van Rooyen, Nel and Schultz.
The five are facing charges of attempted murder, assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm, and the pointing a firearm.
During the bail application phase, State witnesses - two police officers - testified that the five had acted in common purpose and that the attack was racially motivated.
The attack was captured on cellphone video and the clip went viral on social media. There was a public outcry leading to the arrest of the five men.