Staff Reporter.
The bail application of a man accused of kidnapping and murdering Hillary Gardee has been postponed to January 6, 2023.
The case resumed at the Nelspruit Magistrates’ Court in Mbombela, Mpumalanga, where Phillemon Lukhele, murder accused number two, applied for bail this week.
Lukhele’s attorney, Lesego Kwaka, and a key witness (a Home Affairs official) failed to appear before the court on Thursday.
No reasons were provided for their absence.
If the case had continued, the official would have testified on Lukhele’s movement between South Africa and eSwatini.
One of the other accused, Sipho Mkhatshwa, was denied bail back in August. Meanwhile, Mduduzi Gama was also denied bail by the same magistrate’s court in September.
At the time, the court found that he failed to prove that there were exceptional circumstances, which permitted his release on bail.
Gardee, former EFF secretary-general Godrich Gardee, was reported missing on 29 April, after she went shopping with her adopted three-year-old daughter.
The toddler was later found near Gardee’s home.
Her body was found at a timber plantation near Mbombela, Mpumalanga a few days later, on 2 May. She had a gunshot wound and other visible wounds to her head.
The murder accused (Lukhele, Rassie Nkune, Gama and Mkhatshwa) face charges of kidnapping, murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and defeating the ends of justice.