Mudzinganyama Granted R15 000 For Gender Based Violence
Mudzinganyama Granted R15 000 For Gender Based Violence
Businessman Lawrence Chamurwa Mudzinganyama has been granted R15 000 bail by the Randburg Magistrates’ Court.
He appeared in court on Thursday facing 10 charges, including fraud, intimidation, crimen injuria and assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Kaiser Kganyakgo said the state is proceeding with the 10 charges but further charges have not been ruled out as investigations continue.
“Other charges can be added depending on what the circumstances are, but for now, we are working with the 10 charges that are there,” Kganyakgo said.
Mudzinganyama has been involved in the infrastructure sector through Moriel Infrastructure Group, where he served as executive chairman and director. He came under scrutiny last month after a video circulated showing him in a confrontation with women at a Sandton restaurant.
Moriel has since distanced itself from him, while questions have also been raised about the company’s government contracts.
As part of his bail conditions, Mudzinganyama was warned not to interfere with witnesses and is required to appear at the magistrates’ court once a week.
“There are witnesses who are there. Therefore, he has been asked not to intimidate those witnesses,” Kganyakgo said.
He said investigations are continuing and the prosecution believes it has a strong case.
“We need a strong case here. Obviously, as the prosecution, we would not have brought the matter to court if we did not believe we had a strong case,” he said.
Kganyakgo said the state had initially considered R5 000 sufficient for bail, but the court set it at R15 000 after considering the gender-based violence (GBV) context of the case.
“We thought R5 000 on bail was enough and then the court felt, because of the matter being a GBV matter, and at a time where everybody is trying to deal with this issue, then the court felt that the bail would be up to R15 000,” he said.
“We agree with what the court has done because we believe that this is a sensitive matter.”
The matter has been postponed to 15 October.