Two in court over buried chopper

News
SOUTH AFRICAN nationals Laurens Marthinus Botha (66) and Pieter Schalk Marais (44) were yesterday remanded in custody to today for their bail application ruling facing charges of contravening the Immigration Act

SOUTH AFRICAN nationals Laurens Marthinus Botha (66) and Pieter Schalk Marais (44) were yesterday remanded in custody to today for their bail application ruling facing charges of contravening the Immigration Act by failing to comply with the conditions under which their permits were granted.

ALBERT NCUBE OWN CORRESPONDENT

Botha is the owner of Doddieburn Farm where a helicopter was found buried last week after crashing at the beginning of the month. The two appeared separately before provincial magistrate in charge Reuben Mukavhi.

They both denied the charges through their lawyers Kucaca Phulu, who appeared for Botha, while Joseph James represented Marais.

Although the State did not oppose bail, Mukavhi said he needed time to research whether a warrant of detention issued by the Immigration Department was no longer valid.

The State and defence counsels had agreed the detention order falls away when suspects are brought to court.

Botha and Marais had been detained for six days by immigration officials at Beitbridge before being transferred to Gwanda for trial.

James and Phulu argued that their detention was ultra vires the new Constitution which states that arrested or detained persons should be brought to court within 48 hours.

Although not opposed to bail, prosecutor Blessing Gundani sought to have the accused persons granted stringent conditions.

Gundani submitted that the two pay $1 000 bail each, surrender their South African passports, report once every Friday at Hillside Police Station in Bulawayo and reside at their Burnside residence until the finalisation of the case.

The State also sought to have both Botha and Marais surrender their Toyota Land Cruiser vehicles.

In addition the State also wanted Botha to surrender his dump truck and trailer to the police.

Lawyers for the two argued that $1 000 bail was exorbitant as their clients were likely to be fined not more than $200 if convicted.

According to court documents, Innocent Tawanda Hamandishe from the Immigration Department said he was summoned by the police on May 22 following a helicopter crash and its subsequent burial at Doddieburn Ranch.

He then interviewed the two South Africans and it emerged Botha was the manager of Doddieburn Farm contrary to the endorsements in his passport that he was coming into Zimbabwe as a business and holiday visitor.

The State further alleged it also emerged that contrary to endorsements in Marais’ passport that he was entering the country as a holiday visitor, he was working as a supervisor at the farm.

The offence came to light when South African billionaire Frikkie Lutzkie crash-landed at the farm on May 5 and buried his chopper ostensibly to conceal the accident.

The buried chopper was retrieved only last week after two weeks.

Lutzkie has reportedly said he would not be coming to Zimbabwe until his colleagues are released.

It is not the first time that Lutzkie had concealed a helicopter crash.

In May 2012, Lutzkie was apparently returning from a 10-day hunting trip in Askham in the Kalahari when his R50 million Augusta A119 helicopter engine allegedly failed over the Northern Cape forcing him to crash-land in the Severn area, about 70km from the McCarthy border post near Botswana.

The helicopter was discovered camouflaged with branches and smeared with mud.

South Africa’s Civil Aviation Authority said it was informed of the crash three days after it happened by the police.