Businessman in Taxi Tycoon Joe Ferrari Sibanyoni Case Says He Fears For His Life

Added: 2026-05-19

[00:00:09]of Amen.

[00:00:35]The businessman who opened a case against Tixie bosses Joe Ferrari Vima and Filimon Caesar says he fears for his life.

[00:00:46]>> How do you feel?

[00:00:47]>> I was always but everything is all right.

[00:01:01]The businessman spoke to News24 in an exclusive report that was published this morning on Tuesday, May 19th. And if you think about it, his life changed around this time last week when the police's special task force team bundled Joe inside their car from his home in Centurion following the arrest they made the previous night. And then they sent him to Bumalanga where he was going to be joined by Vimi and Filimon in police holding cells. And then later on the week they were all joined by Bafana who handed himself over to the police. And the reason why we are here today is because in 2025 the businessman opened a case of extortion against the group alleging that they extorted money from him on numerous occasions until the money he gave them was 2.2 million rand.

[00:01:42]>> We want to play a role.

[00:01:45]>> We are busing with the streets. Park has been operating for 43 years. Yeah. Please assist us. When you find someone wanting to interfere with the park business, you must know it's us.

[00:02:01]>> Don't put the red tape. Assist us as how do we get into the space. We are fighting for our own 30% within the party section. It is gazed that the 30% belong to the people of one. But when you're talking to the challenged in court twice last week and they appeared in court again on Monday, May 18 for bail application. Now my lady now move to the issue of the bail application.

[00:02:39]The bail application before my lady is now unopposed effectively and we did not bring the bail. We did not bring the accused for bail. The state to do so and then decided to accept itself on that basis alone. The veil must either must the matter must be trapped off from the role. And secondly and so once again if my lady is so minded the bail must continue unosed.

[00:03:05]There's no other day except today to get this fail application finalized.

[00:03:09]To extend this further would not only be a deliberate prejudice that is perpetuated against the accused persons. I do not understand to what end and to achieve what. People who are here because the accused persons have thrown themselves at the message of this court with the understanding that the court will do that which is just.

[00:03:28]But when a court now gets hamstrung and it gets his head tied behind its back by a prosecution that is either deliberately delaying or in fact deliberately trying to distract every work that justice must achieve for everybody should not be condoned.

[00:03:43]Now I am happy my lady to probably close off by saying that we are happy to comply with any and all undertakings that we had taken in our application for bail. We have preempted a few conditions that my lady would find in our in the affidavit for bailing.

[00:04:06]And on that basis alone, if my lady's managed to go on option two, which is not to strike the letter off, but instead get the letterhead unopposed, then we'll submit that the case has been made out and the accused number four to be released on the on the amount that is proposed in the affidavit. as well please.

[00:04:31]>> But the case took a different turn. It was thrown out of court because the state prosecutor Muselinda did not come to court.

[00:04:38]>> The court has heard the applications by the defense council.

[00:04:43]The first one being that Mr. Enaba be found guilty of contempt of court.

[00:04:55]for the reasons that have been placed before the court by council.

[00:05:04]Which reasons actually express my own finding?

[00:05:14]The conduct of Mr. Daba has left my mind boggled.

[00:05:26]I saw him for the first time at the last appearance on Friday and there was a point at which I indicated that he was being unprofessional.

[00:05:42]And today sadly we still have to sit with that. I gave a clear order addressing him directly that it is the court's order Mr. Enaba that you be here at 9:00 on Monday the 18th of May. He is not here.

[00:06:08]I did receive a report uh it would have been just before 9:00 that he had phoned the control prosecutor here in Guaca Fondane to say that he was he was in transit.

[00:06:28]um that he was held up by paperwork and no time or even an approximate time for his arrival was given.

[00:06:42]But I do think that no matter which corner he came from of the province of Mumalang, he would have been here by now if he had an interest to be here or to comply with the order that was made.

[00:07:01]And therefore I think it is only reasonable for this court to find him guilty in his absence of condemned of court and I will authorize a warrant for his arrest >> and the release of join his co-acused has angered a lot of people in the country and we will get back to this but first let's go back to the news 24 report. So they said the businessman says he is scared but he also told the publication that if anything happens to him people should know where to look. He says it took a lot out of him to open the case and he said people generally don't open cases of extortion because they're scared of the people they are dealing with here. In court Joe and his co-acused alleged that they did not extort the businessmen. They say that 2.2 million rand is money that he owed them. The alle in business with him for some time since 2022 and he took a loan from Joe. However, the businessman says he did not take any loan from Joe. He says he's not friends with him or any of his co-acused. In fact, he tells News24 that they simply extorted him for protection fee money. He says he was dealing with people who wanted him to work and they would just come and collect his profits. He says the justice system has led him down.

[00:08:15]The law enforcement officers include the members of the South African police service, the metrop police and correational services.

[00:08:26]They include prosecutors in Hen Province, the judiciary and all these are controlled by the drug cartel as well as business people in that province of Hing. But how did the case even get dropped in the first place? And why is the prosecutor the main man who the entire case relied on to a point where even with the case's high-profile nature, high risk, and the seriousness of the charges, no other plans were pursued to make sure that the case does get ventilated in court by all means. Well, this is what the NPA says happened here.

[00:09:03]>> This is unprecedented.

[00:09:06]NPA was established on one August 1998 and it has never happened in the history of the prosecution that a prosecutor does not arrive in court with no explanation up to now and he is convicted of contempt of court. A warrant of arrest is authorized against him. now is sought after by law enforcement resulting in a case that involve extortion and money laundering which are serious offenses to be struck off the role >> in circumstances where once you invoke section 242 capital A of the criminal procedure act. It can only be reenrolled or reinstated upon written authorization by the director of public prosecutions in the division under whose jurisdiction the matter fall. It is on that basis that in the absence of any explanation up to now the national director had an engagement with the director of public in Bumalanga and labor relations unit and a decision was taken to suspend the prosecutor and to institute disciplinary action against him. Now there are two uh interests that you need to balance.

[00:10:21]You've got a prosecutor who's now been convicted of condemned of court in an unprecedented scenario. You have accused persons that now have walked free.

[00:10:31]>> Yeah.

[00:10:32]>> The matter struck off the role. What do you then do?

[00:10:35]>> Mhm.

[00:10:35]>> In as much as right now, the difficulty we have is that we don't have an explanation of why the prosecutor did not arrive in court and therefore prosec the NPA had to act on two issues. the issue that relates to the prosecutor being convicted and the um knock on effect on the case itself.

[00:10:58]>> Yeah.

[00:10:58]>> And News24 also reports that the prosecutor raised logistic issues in court. However, they say on two previous times that he appeared in court in this case, he arrived late. They say he arrived at 11:00 a.m. the first time, and they say he arrived shortly before midday on Friday, while court actually starts at 9:00 a.m. And then reports that in addition to this, the prosecutor was receiving some sort of threats and he had been traveling with the heavily armed security in the two times that he appeared in court.

[00:11:40]They also report that during the court case on Friday, he did make it clear to the court that he is not available on Monday and asked the court to move the case to today, which is Tuesday, May 19.

[00:11:50]But magistrate Tulong declared his request and insisted that the case be he had on Monday, allegedly stating that she will shove the Monday date down the prosecutor's throat.

[00:12:01]And I'm inclined therefore as I do now strike the matter of the role in terms of section 342A subsection 3 C.

[00:12:34]Cut is A HEAT.

[00:12:52]HEAT.

[00:13:05]HEAT.

[00:13:24]But South Africans have started asking questions and again the main question here is why is the prosecutor the fall guy in this case? Why is the entire justice system in this case resting on his shoulders? Why is he the only one at fault? Were there no other available officials who could hear the case? Was it not possible for the case to get postponed while another prosecutor gets assigned? Was striking the case off the role the only solution here? Was there no need for justice to be served by all means that a case of this magnitude could be struck off the role just because a prosecutor missed court?

[00:13:56]>> What has happened today? Put the publicity aside. It happens routinely in our courts of law. It is provided for in terms of the criminal procedure act. For the viewers out there, let me put it this way.

[00:14:09]A judicial officer takes charge of the proceedings in their court. And if a judicial officer tells you as defense, a witness or anyone to do certain things or not to do certain things in express terms and you go ahead and do what you've been cautioned against, you run the risk of being held in contempt. In this instance, the contempt was failure by an office of the court in the form of a prosecutor to arrive at court on Monday the 18th of May in spite of having been warned specifically to be at court absent a cogent explanation or no explanation at all. You are definitely sailing very close to your your your your you know you are sailing very close to wings because if the court doesn't know why you are not at court the court has no reason other than to find you to be disrespectful and hold you in contempt. As a sequence as a consequence of being found in contempt you may also be sanctioned by the court. In this instance, the court decided to refer his conduct to the professional body, which is the LPC, and also to the NPA. And I can tell you, it's not a good place to be as a professional, as a legal practitioner, to have your conduct referred to your professional body. I don't want us to prejudge the reasons why he was in there, but as matters stand, he was not in court contrary to a court order. And the defense was perfectly entitled on behalf of their clients to say, "We can't have our client's liberty being compromised at the altar of convenience of people who don't respect court authorities, at least objectively." And the magistrate then granted the prayer by the defense to say, "Find him in contempt. strike the matter of alternatively let us continue with the bail application and it is then to be treated as if it is unopposed. So the first price which is the first prayer was granted. There was no need then to proceed further with the bail application because if a matter is struck off the role it does not exist.

[00:16:18]It's not there. The only difference here you may ask is this the end of the case?

[00:16:23]The answer is no. Not by a long shot.

[00:16:26]All the state has to do if they want to reinstate the case they have to get the express and prior authorization by the national director of public prosecutions. If he gives them the authorization, they will then invite not arrest, they will then invite the accused persons before the court today to say on such and such a day, usually on 14 days notice, do present yourself and then weapon.

[00:16:52]>> And according to reports, this is not necessarily the last time that we hear about this case. NPA head advocate and Matibbe did say that the case could be reenrolled and has asked that South Africans exercise patience here. Kaiser, how disturbing a moment was this for you as the NPA? I mean, we got Andy And Andy Mutib's statement saying that he was shocked and disappointed.

[00:17:11]>> No, definitely he was very shocked and disappointed and he really wanted to get to the bottom of it as quickly as possible. H by yesterday he had talked to the director of public prosecution in Kumalanga who is now going to convene a meeting this morning so that a report is brought to him so that he understand what really happened on the side of the prosecutor and then but we also hearing a lot of other things that are relating to what happened in court on Friday and the magistrate's involvement. We are going to ask for the court records so that we are able to understand what really happened and then we'll get to the bottom of it. Whoever would have done this will have to feel the ro of the law.

[00:17:52]>> When you say there are lots of things happening, what do you mean?

[00:17:55]>> Yeah. What I mean is that we we are hearing stories that they were the prosecutor was clearly indicating to to the um magistrate that he's not available and and we will just have to get the records because we don't want to comment before we we get into the records. But all of the information we will get and we will then get to the bottom of it. Whoever whether it is on the side of the prosecutor or on the side of the magistrate who have add will just have to take the metaphor.

[00:18:21]>> So the prosecutor was suspended. He was also placed under investigation and as it stands they say the court authorities had to go through such extreme measures before even hearing his side of the story because they can't get hold of him. So they're essentially saying that he went off the radar.

[00:18:35]>> No we are here. There was nothing you can see.

[00:18:38]>> Yeah. Even the med didn't have anything to show. That's why he didn't come.

[00:18:42]>> So you think he he he didn't come because there wasn't a case again?

[00:18:44]>> Nothing.

[00:18:45]>> Yeah. Case.

[00:18:47]>> We are happy. We got what we wanted and that justice prevail.

[00:18:52]>> STEVEN.

[00:18:56]>> But what are your thoughts on this case?

[00:18:58]Let's talk in the comments. Please stay safe. I will see you on the next one.