Africa-Press – South-Africa. The Carletonville Magistrate’s Court dismissed the bail application of an alleged illegal miner, Dumisani Moyo, on Thursday.
The court found that Moyo had falsely claimed he was a Free State-born, South African citizen.
A home affairs department official, who testified for the State, told the court the hospital Moyo claimed to have been born at opened four years after he was born.
The officer also told the court there were no records of the school Moyo claimed to have attended.
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana said the court instructed the department to cancel Moyo’s citizenship, which he obtained fraudulently.
“The magistrate said Moyo was not honest in his affidavit, and he did not convince the court that it was in the interest of justice that he be released on bail,” said Mahanjana.
Moyo was arrested alongside five accomplices, who are alleged to be illegal mining kingpins. They appeared in court for the second time on 17 October, where they abandoned their bail bids.
The five accomplices are Khudzai Mashaya, Bethuel Ngobeni, Nhlahla Leon Magwaca, Thabo Prince Sechele and Moseki Sechele.
After that court appearance, though, five of the men, except Mashaya, informed the court they wanted to apply for bail.
The men allegedly extracted, processed and sold metals from disused mines and bought properties using fraudulent identities.
“Four of the accused, Ngobeni, Magwaca, Moyo and Mashaya, are also facing four counts of being illegally in the country. It is alleged the six men ran an operation where they illegally collected precious metals from disused and abandoned mines.
“[They] processed and sold them. It is further alleged that they bought properties using falsified names with the proceeds they got from selling the unlawful metals,” said Mahanjana.
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