A senior South African police officer and her husband will appear in court again in February related to a R500,000 (over K25 million) corruption and defeating the ends of justice case linked to prophet Shepherd Bushiri.
The case was on Thursday postponed to February 25 2021.
Brig Rosy Resandt and her husband Clifford Resandt appeared at the Pretoria magistrate’s court, where magistrate Aubrey Mphahlele granted them bail of R15,000 each (K750,000)
Rosy is based in the South Africa Police Service (SAPS) detective service’s head office, under organised crime.
Before the court appearance, a SAPS statement said the couple had handed themselves over to Hawks investigators probing “criminal activities relating to prophet Shepherd Bushiri”.
“Their [the couple’s] warrants of arrest were authorised yesterday [Wednesday] in relation to an amount of R500,000 that was allegedly paid to the brigadier. The investigation started as an inquiry and it was converted into a case docket in February 2020,” the statement read.
On Thursday, Mphahlele granted bail with strict conditions, which included that the couple do not go to any port of entry, do not apply for any travel documents, do not leave Gauteng and report to their nearest police station every Monday between 6pm and midnight.
The couple’s attorney, Victor Nkhwashu, argued that his clients should be granted bail because they do not have previous convictions and because “there has been maximum co-operation between the applicant and the investigators”.
Nkhwashu said Rosy was employed by SAPS and earned a net salary of R30,000, while her husband Clifford, who was self-employed, earned an estimated R30,000.
He pleaded with the court to reduce the initially suggested bail amount of R20,000 to R5,000 each.
However, the state feared that the couple, like the Bushiris, might contravene their bail conditions.
“We all know that the associates in this case have already left the case and a process of extradition has begun. We just want assurance that they will attend every court case,” said a state prosecutor.
The state did not oppose bail. However, it wanted assurance that the couple would adhere to the bail conditions.
