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Empty benches inside the court.
The Randfontein Magistrate’s Court has dismissed the State’s request for a postponement in the bail matter involving two farmers, Riaan Hoeksma and Gregory Wicks.
They are accused of illegal electricity connections. A third suspect Harry Ngwenya, an Eskom employee, is also appearing alongside the two after being arrested on Monday.
The fourth suspect, farmer Johan Niemand was granted bail of R20 000.
The State argued it was not ready to proceed and asked for the matter to stand down until Thursday.
The defence opposed the request, arguing that a postponement would prejudice the accused. Eskom in Gauteng arrested the two farmers last week for alleged electricity-related offences.
One of them, Riaan Hoeksma, was arrested for allegedly reconnecting power after it had been cut due to an unpaid bill of about R1.1 million, meter tampering and bypassing Eskom infrastructure.
The second farmer was arrested after officials discovered an unauthorised 100kVA transformer connected on the property without approval and not reflected in Eskom records.
Investigations further revealed that an Eskom employee allegedly assisted the two farmers.
The bail application is expected to resume Tuesday afternoon.
