By Mohammed Arai
Fazila Khan-Seedat, the alleged defrauder from New Heights Travel & Tours, was back in the Lenasia Magistrate’s Court today for her bail application.
The attorney for the accused, Bhamjee, argued today that all the charges against the accused should be joined as one charge since the cause of action is one, and the alleged incident of fraud by the complainants in the matter is one incident. Bhamjee was referring to the Umrah package advertisement of September last year.
“Even the Investigating Officer of this case has stated in her affidavit that this is a case of one incident, just in different places,” Bhamjee told the Court.
“My learned colleague [State Prosecutor] is trying to delay the bail proceedings by trying to show that this is a case involving different matters, hence the charges should not be joined.”
Bhamjee added: “This is a tactic engineered by the complainants to ensure that the accused remains in custody. This is prejudicial to the accused, and the Constitution disallows this.”
The State Prosecutor argued that the charges against the accused are not from one cause of action, because – although the advertisement was one – different perpetrators were used to defraud the victims.
“Therefore, this application by the defence is premature and should be set-aside, and we should proceed with the bail application,” the State Prosecutor said.
The State Prosecutor further argued that according to section 81 of the Criminal Procedure Act, joining charges as one during trial would amount to an irregularity. Bhamjee, however, was quick to provide clarity to the Court that section 81 refers to trials, and “a bail hearing is not a trial”. Bail hearings are regarded as pre-trial proceedings.
“Furthermore, section 82 [of the Criminal Procedure Act] empowers courts to join charges, and, therefore, we request that the Court join the charges against the accused as one,” added Bhamjee.
The Magistrate rolled over this matter to Wednesday to do research and take a decision on the legal technicalities argued today by the two lawyers.
The bail application has been postponed to Wednesday, 22 April 2020. The accused was remanded in custody at the hospital section of the Johannesburg Correctional Centre, commonly known as Sun City Prison.
Featured image via FreePik.
