The co-accused in a car-theft case with a twist appeared alone in the Grahamstown regional court last week.

The co-accused in a car-theft case with a twist appeared alone in the Grahamstown regional court last week.

Mxolisi Smith appeared briefly in court on Friday before the case was postponed to a week later.

Smith and his co-accused Gordon Hasim were arrested for car theft last year.

They were due to appear in court together on Friday, but Hasim was out of town.

Hasim is also accused of lying about his identity.

Investigating officer Warrant Officer Robbie Roberts said during Hasim's formal bail application last year that his name was in fact Bongani Jele and that KwaZulu-Natal police were looking for him in connection with rape and murder.

Hasim, visibly shocked at the time, listened in the Grahamstown Magistrate's Court on 12 September last year as Roberts revealed that Bongani Jele had several pending warrants of arrest against him, including one of murder and rape, possession of an unlicensed firearm and theft of a car.

Hasim insisted he was not Jele and said he had never been charged with a crime.

Roberts said he had shown photographs of Hasim to witnesses linked to the case.

He told the court that the man who had sold Hasim and Smith the alleged stolen car had died.

The case has been postponed to Friday.

Jele is wanted in connection with the rape and murder of a woman in Utrecht, theft of a motor vehicle in Emadadeni and for possession of an unlicensed firearm in Dundee.

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