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Crime Reporter
ZIMBABWEAN businessman Frank Buyanga Sadiqi (43), who was last month arrested in South Africa on allegations of kidnapping his son in Harare in 2020 and on charges of contempt of court, has been granted R150 000 bail at the Randburg Magistrates Court in Johannesburg.
After his arrest, Buyanga appeared before the Randburg Magistrate’s Court where he was remanded in custody to allow South African authorities to verify his identity documents.
This was after it was found that Buyanga’s South African identity documents showed he was born in Zimbabwe yet his Zimbabwean passport indicated he was born in the United Kingdom.
Although he was granted bail, Buyanga is still in custody pending finalisation of the immigration charge that he is facing.
Buyanga was arrested on November 10, 2022 and since then, has been in custody and at one time, was reportedly attacked in a Johannesburg remand prison by other inmates before he sought a transfer to another prison.
However, a few days later, Buyanga had his warrant of arrest cancelled at the Harare Magistrates Court after magistrate Mrs Judith Taruvinga said that she had issued the warrant erroneously.
But the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) then applied to the High Court challenging the cancellation of the warrant of arrest.
Last week, the Supreme Court also ruled that the appeal against a decision by a High Court judge not to recuse himself from the application by the National Prosecuting Authority for a review of cancellation of Buyanga’s Zimbabwean warrant of arrest must be heard urgently.
The ruling came after Buyanga approached the Supreme Court challenging Justice Pisirayi Kwenda’s decision not to step down from the review and he asked for the appeal to be treated as urgent. Supreme Court Judge Justice Susan Mavangira heard the chamber application last Wednesday for the appeal to be treated as a matter of urgency, and granted the application by Buyanga that this appeal relating to the decision by High Court Judge Justice Kwenda be heard urgently by three appeal judges.
The legal arguments presented also dealt with the actual main decision by the High Court that the warrant was wrongly cancelled.
If that appeal succeeded, it meant the High Court judgment reinstating the warrant of arrest against Buyanga Sadiqi becomes void. If the Supreme Court confirms the High Court decision then the warrant remains live.
Justice Kwenda, who delivered his ruling last Wednesday, reinstated the warrant of arrest for Buyanga.
This was after the court initiated an automatic review process after Harare Magistrate Judith Taruvinga cancelled the Interpol warrant of arrest issued on Buyanga, last month.
Buyanga, who is not happy with the reinstatement of his warrant of arrest, wanted the Supreme Court to quash the High Court decision on the grounds that the High Court misdirected itself when it dismissed the application for the recusal of Justice Kwenda without dealing with any of the grounds upon which the judge’s recusal was sought.
Buyanga argued that then proceeding to deal with the matter in circumstances showed valid grounds for the judge’s recusal.
Online Reporter