Court to deliver verdict in Sotheni bail bid

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]Thank you so much for staying with us on channel 405. It's the middle ground.

[00:00:03]Let's start here. The Brackpan Magistrate's Court is set to hand down its ruling in the bail application of former police special task force officer, Buti Baloyi Letsoalo. Now, Letsoalo faces 16 charges, including premeditated murder, the conspiracy to commit murder, as well as attempted murder, arising from the December 2025 assassination of Marius van der Merwe.

[00:00:24]Now, the whistleblower was gunned down outside his Brackpan home just weeks after giving explosive testimony at the Matlala Commission of Inquiry. Zola Sholwana joins us now live ahead of those proceedings. It is just the bail proceedings that we're expecting to get confirmation of here and the ruling on on this one. But, throughout the entire process, Buti Baloyi Letsoalo has maintained his innocence, Zola.

[00:00:55]>> Yes, indeed, Arabile. We have continuously heard him through his defense lawyer that the state does not have sufficient evidence in terms of linking him to the murder of witness team. Now, in the previous appearance, we got to see the defense presenting what we call supplementary evidence. And that is, of course, after the prosecution added additional charges, which the defense argued that those charges were just a small fragment of the initial charges that we got to know about. So, in that affidavit, we got to hear the defense once again, you know, telling the court that there is no direct evidence that links Letsoalo to that particular murder. And the state has failed so far to present a case that essentially shows that, indeed, just after 8:00, Letsoalo was on the scene with Um, one of the um, alleged suspects on this case, which is the late, uh, Wietsie Pretorius. Let's take a listen at, uh, Soutane's defense lawyer.

[00:02:05]>> The state says the shooting happened at about 20:32.

[00:02:09]It is important to inform the court that at the time of this alleged offense, I was not in Colts Street where Mr. van der Merwe resides. My tracker does not place me there. The state does not give an explanation to the court that at some point it was a white bakkie that was stolen. This shows the timeline is not clear. The state has not explained this properly. The state does not deal with the tracking evidence.

[00:02:33]The deceased car had a tracker, but the state does not explain its data. My vehicle tracking does not place me at the exact scene. At 20:32, according to the tracker report, I was in the vicinity of Brackpan, but not at the scene. I was nearby, but two streets away from the scene.

[00:02:52]>> Now, Arabella, you would remember that, um, you know, when these investigations were done by police, the first person that was arrested, um, earlier this year was Wietsie, uh, Wietsie Pretorius, the one that died by suicide, um, in one of the garages here in the East Rand. Now, what the defense is saying is that the state will then have to prove that indeed there were conversations, uh, or exchange in terms of, you know, texts that will prove that indeed Matlala Soutane, uh, you know, was planning to take down uh, witness D, of which, uh, they say at this present moment they have failed to do that, um, uh, you know, according to the, you know, evidence that has been presented so far before court. Now, let's take a listen at, uh, Soutane's uh, lawyer telling the court that, uh, you know, the state will have to show some sort of, you know, evidence, even if it's through messages to show that indeed, uh, you know, Soutane planned this murder with the late Pretorius.

[00:03:54]>> If Veandre Pretorius was an undesirable character when you start following.

[00:04:01]Now, Mr. Veandre Pretorius is dead.

[00:04:05]And on conspiracy and common purpose, the state has to prove that there was an agreement between the applicant and other people to commit a particular offense.

[00:04:18]Now, as things stand, and we've got the applicant and we've got Mr. Pretorius who's who's gone to sing with the angels.

[00:04:29]How is the state going to succeed on the conspiracy?

[00:04:38]How is the state going to succeed on the common purpose?

[00:04:45]>> Now, our ability day's court ruling on the bail application of Mat Tipane Leso Teni will determine on whether he will be able to attend or rather he will be attending you know his trial while he's outside on bail or he will remain in custody. So, those are the details that will come out of today's court proceedings. Back to you in studio.

[00:05:08]>> Yeah, thank you so much for that preview to proceedings which will indeed kick off a later on this morning. On Zola Sholwana we'll be following that and we'll get straight to it a little bit later on this morning.