One matter has been removed from the case of the three men who are accused of luring men on the Grindr dating app.
Mlungisi Vincent Mbutu, Bongani Zulu and Zwelakhe Ngwenya appeared in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Thursday.
They have abandoned their bail application as they plan to deal with outstanding warrants of arrests in Gauteng first.
The trio is accused of kidnapping, extortion, robbery with aggravating circumstances and cyber crimes.
They were arrested in Woodstock at a rental home with a hostage tied up. They were tracked down when the Hawks noticed strange transactions in the victim's bank account.
After this arrest five more victims came forward.
The National prosecuting authority (NPA) regional spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said: “Their case has been postponed until 15 October 2024 for further investigation. That further investigation will include digital data analysis which will assist us to add the cyber crime charges against the accused.
“Please note that we now have six charges against the accused as the results of the seventh identity parade were negative.
“The six cases are: one case in Woodstock, three in the CBD (two CBD and one Camps Bay), one Durbanville and one Brackenfell.
“The State will no longer apply/request a centralisation certificate as it is no longer necessary to do so. All the cases will be tried at Cape Town Magistrates Court.”
Their lawyer Nceba Jack said the bail is abandoned provisionally.
“The case is in Johannesburg, for which a warrant is issued out and we must go and cancel it and that is the reason we abandoned it.
“The date of the next appearance was very lengthy to November and we wouldn’t be in a position to monitor the investigation as we have seen one matter has been removed.”
mandilakhe.tshwete@inl.co.za