Crime Intel

D-Day in KFC assault accused bail application

Stephan Nel, Joshua Schultz, DJ van Rooyen, Ockert Muller and Marius Harding are accused of assaulting a black couple at a KFC drive-through earlier this month.

A decision in the bail application of the three of the five men accused of assaulting a couple at a Pretoria KFC drive-through earlier this month is expected to be made on Wednesday. Stephan Nel, 39; Joshua Schultz, 21; DJ van Rooyen, 21; Ockert Muller, 20; and Marius Harding, 23, face charges of attempted murder, intent to cause grievous bodily harm and pointing of a firearm in an altercation with Jacob and Dudu Sono on August 3. The altercation happened in the early hours of August 3 outside a KFC drive-through in Montana. During the bail application, police testified that incidents of attempted murder and assault that are racially motivated frequently occur in the area and as a result, such incidents between different races are taken more seriously than ones between people of the same race. However, Warrant Officer Ravi Naidoo, a group commander at Sinoville detective unit investigating the incident, conceded while testifying that there was no evidence to suggest that the assault was racially motivated. Constable William Tladi, investigating the incident and who reports to Warrant Officer Naidoo, told the court that Dudu Sono was attacked based on her race. “They called her a bitch, they also insulted her on her skin colour,” Tladi told the court. He said that the men called her a “swart gat [black arse]”. These statements were, however, not in his affidavit read into the record prior to him taking the stand. Additionally, police failed to add racism and crimen injuria to the charge sheet. Muller has already been granted bail, but Nel, Schultz and van Rooyen are set to learn their fate on Wednesday. Harding earlier abandoned his bail application. The case is set to resume in the Pretoria North Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.