Two brothers and their wives who are being held over a R100m drug bust at their homes, have been described as "pleasant" and "polite."
|||Neighbours had described the two brothers and their wives as “decent”, “quiet”, “pleasant” and “polite” people.
But yesterday, brothers Njabulo Mahlangu and Sicelo, their wives Yvette Moekeetsi and Portua and their domestic worker Matilda Tepanjika, appeared in the Randburg Magistrate’s court. The five are charged with dealing with drugs and manufacturing of drugs.
They were arrested on Wednesday in a multi-million drug bust in their northern Joburg homes. At the two homes, one in Bryanston and another in Douglasdale, police recovered drugs and raw manufacturing material to the street value of R100 million.
State prosecutor Katlego Hlabangane described how the police had uncovered two refuse bags with powder to manufacture Mandrax, raw materials and two tablet pressers in one home. He also said that in the second home, police discovered 203 tablets, raw materials and two more tablet pressers on Wednesday morning.
Their bail hearing was set for Monday July 30, after Dolph Jonker, lawyer for the Mahlangus and Moekeetsi, asked that the date be set as early as possible as Moekeetsi had a three-month-old baby whom she still breastfed.
“The accused has tried expressing breast milk and sending it to be fed to her baby through a bottle. The baby, however, is not feeding. We are asking the court to take the child into consideration,” Jonker said to the court.
Charges against three more suspects who were arrested, a gardener and two domestic workers, were dropped.
Relatives of the accused became upset when reporters spoke to the court orderly and prosecutor, asking for the names of the accused.
“What do you want their names for? Are you going to print their names in the papers? You are going to ruin their lives,” one of the relatives said, pointing her finger in the reporter’s face.
“Don’t you dare point your finger in my face. I am only doing my job,” responded the reporter before the relative was escorted from the court room by security.
Pretoria News Weekend