Malusi Booi granted bail; more accused joins case soon

Alleged 28s gang boss, Ralph Stanfield and his wife, Nicole Johnson, are expected to appear at the Cape Town Magistrates Court next month, joining former City Human Settlements MMC, Malusi Booi, and his nine co-accused. Booi and his co-accused were granted bail during their court appearance on Tuesday.

Most of the 10 accused are expected to pay R25,000 for their temporary release from custody. The conditions for them include a prohibition on leaving their respective provinces without prior communication with the investigating officer and providing a detailed itinerary. Additionally, they are not allowed to make contact with any witnesses.

[BREAKING NEWS] Corruption accused former Cape Town human settlements MMC Malusi Booi has been granted R250,000 bail at the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court.

Tune into #Newzroom405 for more. pic.twitter.com/csrJEMfkO5

— Newzroom Afrika (@Newzroom405) September 17, 2024

National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson, Eric Ntabazalila, says some of the lawyers for the accused had already approached the court to make payment.

“We’ve seen some of them approaching the prosecutor already asking for the charge sheet so that they can go and pay for the bail amount. Some of the lawyers have indicated that they’ll be paying [on Tuesday].”

Ntabazalila expressed satisfaction with the court’s decision to increase the bail amounts beyond the initial state proposal.

“We proposed bail amounts between R20,000 and R200,000 and the court came to a different decision, which we welcome.”

Ntabazalila further highlighted that many of the accused had failed to comply with the magistrate’s earlier requests, and as such the bail amounts were not favourable for them. He says they did not provide adequate documentation to support a lower bail, such as salary slips or bank statements, to show their financial capacity.

Tender corruption

The group face charges including fraud, corruption and money laundering. Their case centres around allegations that Booi and his co-accused were involved in awarding and benefiting from fraudulent tenders, linked to an enterprise allegedly led by Stanfield and Johnson. Eight tenders, worth over R1 billion, were reportedly channelled to this enterprise.

Ntabazalila says Stanfield and Johnson will be formally added as co-accused at the next court appearance on 16 October. Ntabazalila has not ruled out the possibility of further charges or additional accused.

“We’ve got enough evidence which we told the court we will use to prosecute this case. We’ll have witnesses, we’ll have writing experts and we’ll have linguistic experts as well… This is a live investigation, and if more evidence emerges, we will not hesitate to act.”