The Western Cape High Court has granted Anderson Padayachee some relief after an application to relax his bail conditions was approved.
The Durban arms dealer is accused of smokkeling guns to Cape Flats gangs.
He returned to the high court on Friday for his 10th appearance, and will now be presented by Legal Aid lawyers for the massive upcoming trial.
Two years after he was caught by the Hawks for allegedly providing guns to the Terrible Josters gang, Padayachee told the court he can no longer afford a lawyer.
He was arrested in February 2021, and at the time the Hawks revealed that they seized 17 illegal firearms in George in transit from Johannesburg and those firearms were allegedly destined to Cape Town skollies.
A further 44 firearms were later seized from Padayachee’s business.
According to the charge sheet, Padayachee is charged under the POCA Act for aiding criminal activities by the Terrible Josters gang in Kalksteenfontein and Bonteheuwel by unlawfully selling guns to them in 2018.
It further states that the arms dealer allegedly committed fraud on the firearms registry and supplied false information for the issuing of competency certificates.
He is also being charged with several murders as he allegedly provided the guns used in these cases.
During proceedings, advocate Burger Brand asked the court to amend his client’s bail conditions, to report to a local police station once a week instead of three times.
The application was unopposed by the State and approved by the judge.
Brand told the court he could not indicate a possible trial date as he’d received several boxes with case information, but no inventory. The matter was postponed to April 14 for another pre-trial.