'Ferrari' and co-accused hand themselves over

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]Uh the Mumalanga taxi boss Joe Simani and his co-acused have now handed themselves over to the police station in Delmas as the extortion case is expected to be reenrolled. Now the case was struck off the role by the Quaka Fontaine magistrate's court last week after the prosecutor failed to appear for bail. News Africa's Veronica Muadi joins us live from Delmas this morning.

[00:00:21]So Veronica, um we are looking to that appearance, that reinrollment happening at the Delmas Magistrate's Court, but they are being processed at the police station right next door.

[00:00:34]>> Uh that's correct, Michelle. And in fact, some of the anticipation this morning ahead of this matter hearing at the Dalmas magistrate court was whether or not the taxi mogul Joseph Anony alongside his co-accus Bafana Sindan, another taxi tycoon would actually be appearing before the court. And this is of course after their legal team uh filed an urgent interdict at the high court. Uh this is of course their intention to challenge that J50 warrant of arrest that was issued out uh for them in order for them to appear before the uh Dalmas magistrate court. And so we understand that the NPA was served with those papers this morning. Uh and in fact even speaking on the side to SAN's uh legal representatives that's Shaun Abrahams. He said and that in fact he did not want Jose presenting himself at the court today and that he in fact decided that he would bring himself to the court uh as that matter of course is before the high court. It's expected to be heard on the 2nd of June and so he would still have to uh appear before this court uh following that warrant of arrest and so this is the procedure. It is a standard procedure when an accused is of course be beering before a court.

[00:01:51]They need to be processed here at the police station. There was a lot of questioning whether or not they would be here. Uh but um it was a quick moment where we did get an opportunity to speak uh to the man known as Ferrari in the taxi circles. Of course, this is because of his ownership of those high performance vehicles and his vast property and the uh you know name that he's forged for himself with not only the taxi industry but even here in Impulan. We spoke to him uh just a short while ago just to get a sense of how he's feeling and he said that today he is simply going to rely on the word of God. uh he said he was the word of God as well uh that he relied on in the Guaca Fontain matter as we saw that case uh collapsing really in a dramatic way and he says today it's the same uh you know mood for him simply going to uh rely on uh the word of the Lord to push him through and so uh the man of God being processed here at the Dalmas uh police station a simple stone throw away from the court he's of course being joined by the man known as Bafana Sindani nick named as well in the taxi circles as the king of the sky. Uh not really flying so high in this moment as the NPA uh as well as the Impumalanga uh public prosecutions there enrolling this matter back into the courts. But of significance Michelle is that we're dealing with not only a different magistrate court completely. Uh we've also gotten confirmation that there is a new magistrate on this matter as well as a different team of prosecutors. I'm just waiting uh for confirmation on the name of the magistrate. It will be magistrate Sini Boutlesi. So a completely different magistrate going to oversee this matter. A different team of prosecutions and of course uh a different court alto together. uh the MPA signaled this is because of safety reasons and it's also important to note that following the hurdles the obstacles uh that the media faced at Guaca Fontain in regards to being able to take uh certain procedures live even the uh permission to film the court. It was quite a difficult one at some point having to argue each time we appeared before that particular court. Today uh that magistrate granting and giving the media the green light not only to take the proceedings live but also in fact to be able to film the to film the accused was which was quite a difficult thing uh to be able to do. So you can see quite a difference uh in the handling of this matter. A lot more freedom for the media as well. Uh and we're seeing of course uh as we anticipate and we wait for uh Siboni as well as Sani to uh come out of the police station here. Their legal representatives did join them inside of the court and we're expecting them as this case continues to come with more layers of uh you know controversy, more layers of trying to see how uh one can really exhaust the legal loopholes within this matter. Uh and we understand as soon as they are processed here at the Dalmas police station, they will be headed straight into the magistrate court where we will hear the reenrollment of this matter uh and perhaps maybe finally get to hear the state side of what exactly they have against the four accus because you'd remember part of the case collapsing at the Guaca Fontaine magistrate court last week is that the state did not get an opportunity to oppose bail. We didn't get to hear their arguments and that's why even in that fight by the defense they were saying that this matter essentially is unopposed bail and so we'll finally also be able to hear exactly how the state was able to uh link the four accused to this matter of a 2.2 million rand extortion scheme.

[00:05:36]Michelle >> Ranik Muadi is live to us there in Delmas tracking that