Maqubela back in jail after bail bid refused
Convicted killer Thandi Maqubela was dealt a double blow on Friday when she was denied bail, and her subsequent application for leave to appeal this ruling was dismissed.
Addressing journalists after the ruling, prosecutor Bonnie Currie-Gamwo said she was more than satisfied with the two rulings, adding: “We can focus now on the appeal which is to the SCA [Supreme Court of Appeal] and we hope it will be done and finalised next year.”
Acting judge Ntobeko Patrick Maqubela was killed in June 2009.
His wife, Thandi, was convicted in the Western Cape High Court in 2013, and it took another year and four months to sentence her.
The delays were caused by, among others, her hospitalisation at a psychiatric hospital, her lawyers quitting, and her firing her legal team.
The high court granted Maqubela leave to appeal her murder conviction in August this year, but denied leave to appeal her fraud and forgery convictions, which are related to her altering her husband’s will after his death.
She is serving an effective 18 years in prison – 15 years for murder, and three years for fraud and forgery.
This week Maqubela applied for bail pending the outcome of her bid to have the Supreme Court of Appeal overturn her murder conviction, with her legal team arguing the appeal had “reasonable prospects of success”.
But Judge Andre Le Grange would not be swayed, ruling on Friday that: “On consideration of all the facts before me I’m not convinced the applicant showed it will be in the interests of justice to permit her release on bail.”
Maqubela’s legal team immediately launched an application for leave to appeal the refusal of bail, but Le Grange again said he was not persuaded that another court would come to a different conclusion.
Maqubela, who looked visibly upset, whispered with her attorney before being led down to the cells before she was transported to the Worcester correctional facility where she has been imprisoned for the past eight months.
ANA
File photo: Gallo Images