Africa-Press – South-Africa. Controversial entrepreneur Edwin Sodi was on Friday granted R150 000 bail at the Randburg Magistrate’s Court on attempted murder charges.
Sodi handed himself over at the Sandton police station last week after he allegedly assaulted his estranged wife, Nthateng Lerata, and her male friend at their Bryanston home.
After he was granted bail, the magistrate, Neelan Karikan, ordered Sodi not to communicate or interfere with witnesses and to remain at his premises in Morningside until the finalisation of the case.
He was ordered not to leave the house, unless he had made prior arrangements with the investigating officer. However, he is entitled to leave his premises for court purposes.
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Sodi had to hand over all keys to the home where Lerata lives.
He faces charges of attempted murder, assault with the intention to do grievous bodily harm, and two counts of pointing a firearm.
According to the charge sheet, Sodi unlawfully and intentionally attempted to kill Lerata by attempting to shoot her on 10 March.
The charge sheet further stated that Sodi unlawfully and intentionally assaulted Faizal Motlekar, Lerata’s friend, by hitting him with a firearm on his head, with the intention of causing him grievous bodily harm.
He is also accused of having pointed a firearm at Lerata and Motlekar “without good reason to do so”.
In an affidavit he submitted in court for his bail application, Sodi says he was born in 1973 in Modjadiskloof in Limpopo, and that his father died in 2017.
His mother, he says, lives in a village called Senakwe in Limpopo. He went on to say that he got married in 2000 and had a son, who was born in 2003. He was divorced in 2004 and met the complainant in the matter, Lerata, in 2005.
“Nthateng and I have had an on-and-off relationship for some time. She had a son from the previous relationship, who was three years old at the time. Nthateng and I are embroiled in litigation regarding our relationship.”
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In the affidavit, Sodi said Lerata contended that they were married according to customary law, but it was not true.
In 2008, he said, he had a short-lived relationship with another woman. His second child, a daughter, was born from that relationship.
He broke up with her and met another woman, who gave birth to his third child.
During that time, he also had a relationship with a different woman, who gave birth to his fourth child. He started seeing Lerata again in late 2011.
“It was during that stage that she fell pregnant with her second child. She gave birth to our daughter, my fifth child.”
According to Sodi, the girl, who is nine, lives with Lerata at the house that belonged to his family trust in Bryanston. He says he broke up with Lerata in 2015 – and his sixth child was then born in 2018 after a relationship with another woman.
He claimed that he was served with an interim protection order on 15 March and he needed to be back in court on 23 March to give reasons why the order should not be made final. He said he would oppose the application because it was “based on false information and it was one-sided”.
Sodi said he would be pleading not guilty in the attempted murder case brought by Lerata and Motlekar, saying he had no previous convictions.
He, however, has a pending matter in Bloemfontein related to fraud and corruption.
Sodi, together with former Free State premier Ace Magashule, former Mangaung mayor Olly Mlamleli and former human settlements head of department Nthimotse Mokhesi, were in 2020 charged with fraud, corruption, theft and money laundering, among other charges, related to a R255 million contract for the assessment and removal of asbestos from roofs and/or housing in Free State.
Sodi is currently out on R500 000 bail in that matter.
In his affidavit, Sodi said he regularly assisted his extended family in Limpopo financially and his incarceration would lead to financial strain to many, including the employees at his companies.
He owns several immovable properties and cars, such as a Rolls Royce Dawn, Bentley Supersport, Bentley Continental, Porsche S and a Ferrari FF.
Clothing
Sodi says he also owns various movable assets, comprising household and personal items, as well as clothing and jewellery, worth R10 million.
In denying the allegations, Sodi said he had driven past his house on the night in question and saw that it was in total darkness.
“I suspected that this had possibly been caused by load shedding or other Eskom related problems. I had installed a generator, which was supposed to supply electricity and automatically switch on in the event of power failure.
“I maintain the generator and I supply fuel for it. I thus went to inspect it because the security lights being off creates a dangerous situation.”
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He claims that he knocked on the front door, but did not get a response and entered the home with his own set of keys.
“I heard suspicious sounding noises and went to inspect. I encountered Nthateng and Faizal (the complainants) engaging in sex in circumstances where my nine-year-old daughter could have walked in on them at any time.
“This was in the theatre to which my daughter has free access and frequents,” he said.
According to Sodi, he took Lerata and Motlekar to task about it, but was attacked by the latter.
“I lawfully warded off his attack by hitting him on the head with my cellular phone. This resulted in him having a cut on his head. I did not have a firearm with me. I don’t even possess one.”
Sodi said he had no desire to flee the country because his business interests and close family all reside in the country.
The matter was postponed to 31 May.
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