Online Reporter
Online Reporter
Opposition figure Job Sikhala, who was arrested in South Africa last Friday, has appeared at the Pretoria Magistrate Court, facing charges of illegal possession of explosives.
Sikhala was remanded in custody until Wednesday, November 12, 2025, according to media reports from South Africa.
Video footage posted on microblogging site, X, by a number of South African media outlets, showed Sikhala (53) who leads the National Democratic Working Group and his associate Alexander Thema (78) arriving at the Pretoria Magistrate Court on Monday.
Sikhala and Thema, who spent the weekend in police custody at Pretoria Central, were arrested early on Friday morning while travelling in a Ford Fiesta along the N14 highway towards Johannesburg, after Kgosi Mampuru Correctional Centre. It is yet to be established what the pair intended to use the explosives for.
However, according to South African authorities, the explosives are used mostly in illegal mining activities in the Free State and Gauteng provinces and for bombings of ATMs and cash-in-transit vehicles by criminals.
South African Police Service spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe said police found 26 blasting cartridges and 15 capped fuse connectors in Sikhala’s vehicle.
Sikhala and Thema were arrested after a tip-off.
“The pair has been arrested and will appear before the Pretoria Magistrate court on Monday facing a charge of being in possession of explosives,” said Brig Mathe.
derick.khumalo