A man accused of brutally murdering his gender activist girlfriend remains in custody after his bail application was postponed again.
A man accused of brutally murdering his gender activist girlfriend remains in custody after his bail application was postponed again.
The 39-year-old Vukani man was due to appear in the Grahamstown Magistrate’s Court for bail judgement last Friday 2 August.
Family of the victim, Nontsikelelo Mtwisha, 32, community members and local gender activists packed the court room.
Magistrate Ronny Lesele, the presiding officer in the bail application now running into its third week, could not be in court to deliver his judgement on Friday.
The case was postponed by another magistrate to 13 August for the presiding officer to deliver judgement.
Throughout the long bail application the court has heard allegations that the man repeatedly struck his girlfriend on the head with an axe on the afternoon of 7 July.
The well-known mechanic handed himself over to police soon after the incident and was charged with murder.
Throughout his court appearances in the past month, women wearing T-shirts emblazoned with Mtwisha’s face and the message, "Rest in peace Ntsiki" have been part of a group filling the court room.
