Alleged 28s boss Ralph Stanfield and his wife Nicole Johnson will spend Christmas innie mang after their bail was denied at the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
The notorious duo appeared alongside Johannes “Bal” Abrahams, Denver Booysen and Jose Brand on various charges linked to a manhunt and attempted murder of a former employee of Stanfield, who allegedly stole over R1 million from the couple.
They were arrested in their Constantia home earlier this month.
During their bail hearings, it was revealed that the former employee, who is now a State witness, had not arrived at work on November 24, 2022 after he was tipped off that Stanfield had allegedly planned to kill him.
The witness then hid his girlfriend’s BMW in a complex in Milnerton and went into hiding.
According to the State’s case, Stanfied and Johnson embarked on a “witchhunt” and even threatened the father of the witness, klapped an unsuspecting neighbour and took the car without the owner’s permission.
Addressing the court yesterday, State advocate Nathan Adriaanse accused the couple of telling liegstories about their medical conditions and addressed the responses given by the Department of Correctional Services.
Stanfield told the court in a statement that he suffers from cholesterol, high blood pressure and sleep apnoea, and needed a special oxygen machine or his life would be at risk.
But Adriaanse said Stanfield was assessed at Brandvlei Prison and no risk was noted by the doctor.
Adriaanse said Johnson had told the court that she was denied care by nurses at Pollsmoor Prison, but this was refuted by the nurses, who said that she had refused treatment.
Adriaanse said the couple also omitted to tell the court that in recent years they had gone overseas 50 times.
He said as their son had been given the opportunity to study abroad next year, there was nothing that prevented the couple from “jumping ship”, as they face 15 years in the tjoekie if found guilty.
Adriaanse said the attempted murder by Brand, who is an alleged hitman for The Firm gang, on September 7, provided enough evidence that the State witnesses were known to the accused.
In her bail judgement, which took over two hours to read out, Magistrate Atta Theart listed an array of reasons why she would not be granting Stanfield and Johnson bail – chief being them having lied about their medical conditions.
She further highlighted the attempted hit on the State witness and said that Johnson lied to the court when she had initially claimed she did not know the name of the victim, yet knew his girlfriend’s name and that he had allegedly stolen money from her.
Magistrate Theart also said the State had a strong prima facie case against the couple.
All the accused are remanded in custody until February 5 for further investigations.