Mashaya denied bail after his re-arrest for not paying back money

Rodney Mashaya denied bail Picture: FILE
Rodney Mashaya denied bail Picture: FILE

Well-known Eastern Cape football club boss Rodney “Mash” Mashaya yesterday failed in his bid to be released on bail pending a high court review of his five-year sentence for theft he committed in 2009.

Mashaya was arrested in late March after he had failed to honour conditions of his 2016 suspended sentence, conditions which included that he pay half of the R485725 his civil engineering company stole from a contractor they had worked with in 2009.

He was sentenced to five years after pleading guilty to the theft charge in 2016, a sentence his legal team yesterday told the Komani Regional Court they will be seeking to review in the high court. Addressing court, defence attorney Henry van Breda urged the court to release Mashaya on bail pending a review of the sentence, which will be heard in the high court at a date yet to be determined.

“There are issues that need to be looked at in the sentencing and what happened during the three years of correctional supervision. When he was released on warning, he complied with the conditions until the matter was finalised,” he said.

Van Breda further said Mashaya will not abscond as he has a business to run and family to support.

He said should the high court review be successful, Mashaya would have suffered a lot due to his incarceration.

However, magistrate Onika van Papendrop denied Mashaya’s bail application, ruling “it will not be in the interest of justice”.

Mashaya’s company Zezethu Engineers was appointed by Ikhala TVET College as a principal agent to manage a building contract. They then paid the construction company responsible for the building work R714274 of what was owed to them, and illegally pocketed R485725.

Mashaya and his business partner, Rodgers Klaas were both sentenced to five years in prison, but their sentences were suspended for five years on condition they repaid the money they misappropriated within six months of being sentenced. Klaas paid half, while Mashaya never did, paving the way for his arrest this March. 

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