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Pretoria  –  Three of the five men accused of assaulting a couple at a KFC in Pretoria applied for bail in the Pretoria North Magistrate’s Court on Thursday.

They claimed the couple, a husband and wife, were the aggressors.

Stephan Nel, 39, Marius Harding, 23, DJ van Rooyen, 21, Ockert Muller, 20, and Joshua Scholtz, 21, are facing charges of attempted murder, assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm, and pointing a firearm. They allegedly attacked a black couple at a KFC drive-through in Montana last week.

On Thursday, the court heard that Harding abandoned his bid for bail. He had an outstanding warrant of arrest for theft. Muller was granted bail earlier this week. Nel, Scholtz, and Van Rooyen applied for bail.

Read: Second video of KFC assault emerges

JC Erasmus, for Van Rooyen, read an affidavit into record in which he claimed the couple attacked him.

Van Rooyen said he had ordered his food and was told it would take some time. While waiting, the husband got out of his car and confronted him.

The couple was parked behind him and the other accused were in a car behind them. The accused state they did not know each other and did not act as one group.

Erasmus said a security guard told the husband to get back into his car. The man’s wife told him to do the same.

After the first assault, which Van Rooyen said he was not part of, both the husband and wife began punching Muller.

“At that point I intervened and hit him (the husband) with clenched fists,” Van Rooyen said.

Erasmus said the evidence would show the accused were not racist and that the couple were the aggressors.  He said Van Rooyen was arrested after he drove to the Sinoville police station to open a case against the couple.

No violent behaviour

Schultz said he had no history of violent behaviour.

“I respectfully aver that I do not have a disposition to violence or that there is any past evidence of such a disposition to violence. As my evidence will show at trial, I was not the aggressor in the situation,” his lawyer Francois Kriel read from his affidavit.

JJ Bornman, for Nel, said his client had many medical conditions and he had a mild heart attack when he was 30.

“Stressful situations, in particular my incarceration, are life threatening to me,” Bornman read from Nel’s affidavit.

Van Rooyen and Scholtz said they were not linked to other cases of assault, as Police Minister Fikile Mbalula had alleged on Twitter.

The State opposed bail, due to public outrage and the perception that the assault was racially motivated. Prosecutor Ronnie Sibanda said witnesses, who worked at the KFC, were scared.

Magistrate Motlhoki Rapulana postponed the bail application to August 18.

Cape Town – Deputy High Education Minister Mduduzi Manana is still receiving VIP police protection, despite being charged with two counts of assault, Police Minister Fikile Mbalula said on Thursday.

“If he is still a deputy minister, we will protect him,” Mbalula told reporters at Parliament.

“We protect everybody who is appointed by the president, because they are the property of the State and of government and because that’s what we do.”

He was arguing against claims that Manana was receiving special treatment after he allegedly assaulted a woman at the Cubana nightclub in Fourways, Johannesburg, over the weekend.

“There are procedures you need to follow when you take away VIP protection.”

He said if Manana were to “step aside” his VIP protection would be revoked.

It was unclear if Manana’s bodyguards were present during the fracas and, if they were there, what role they played. Mbalula said this was being investigated.

On Thursday, Manana appeared in the Randburg Magistrate’s Court, Johannesburg, on two charges of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm. He was granted R5 000 bail.

In a recording obtained by TimesLive, Manana can be heard admitting to the assault in a conversation with the brother of the woman, Mandisa Duma.

“I hit her, I slapped her,” Manana is heard saying. He argues that Duma swore at him and called him gay.

In a video posted on social media, Manana slaps a cowering woman.

Following social media outrage and calls for his head, Manana “apologised” and said there was “extreme provocation”.

The police’s VIP protection unit’s budget for 2017/18 is R2.8bn. The department of women in the Presidency’s budget for this financial year is R206m.

MIDDELBURG – The two men accused of assaulting and shoving farmworker Victor Mlotshwa into a coffin have racked up about R200,000 in legal fees during their trial, but they would not pay a cent of it as they were represented free of charge, their attorney said on Thursday.

Willem Oosthuizen and Theo Martins Jackson were represented by advocates Wayne Gibbs and Org Basson since the on-going trial started in the Delmas High Court on Monday.

Speaking to African News Agency (ANA) at the Middelburg High Court, attorney Marius Coertze said he appointed the two advocates because he wanted to help Oosthuizen and Jackson as they were currently unemployed.

He said both Oosthuizen and Jackson were also defrauded of about R50,000 by a certain man who masqueraded as an attorney and promised to defend them after they were arrested late last year.

“When we took over this case in March, from the previous lawyers, there were promises to collect money from donors or people who wanted to support the accused. But that did not happen,” said Coertze.

“That [fraud] was a huge blow for them. This case is quite unique and it is the first of its kind. If we don’t represent them, they will have no lawyers. The emotions are high out there because of this case. I have handled many other unique and difficult cases before, but this one is unique because of the coffin.”

READ: Coffin assault motivated by hatred for black people, says state

Oosthuizen and Jackson were arrested late last year, and they face charges including attempted murder, kidnapping, intimidation and assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm. The incident happened on a farm near Middelburg and it was captured on a video that went viral on social media.

Coertze, who runs a private law practice in Pretoria, said he normally represented people free of charge twice a year.

The trial was expected to be concluded on Thursday, but it would still continue on Friday, added Coertze.

African News Agency