PORT ELIZABETH - ALLEGED PERLEMOEN SYNDICATE PAYS R310 000 BAIL IN CASH

Four members of a suspected perlemoen syndicate were granted bail of R310 000 yesterday – a combined amount paid in cash by their lawyer just half an hour after the court gave its ruling.

And as the suspected head of the so-called “enterprise”, businessman Morne Blignault, 45, was told to cough up the majority of the bail money – R250 000 – members of another syndicate claimed they had received death threats from St Albans Prison, where Blignault and his crew had been held.

Lawyers for Julian Brown and Eugene Victor, revealed in court on Thursday as potential witnesses against Blignault’s group, asked that their clients accordingly be held at the Mount Road police station pending their applications for bail next week.

Blignault, his ex-wife Marshelle, and four others – Jacob Naumann, 35, Petrus Smit, 32, and father and son William and Frederick Nance, aged 53 and 19 – were arrested last week.

Marshelle was released on bail of R20 000 shortly after her arrest, while the others needed to make formal bail applications.

Yesterday, the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court released all except Naumann, alleged to be Blignault’s right-hand man, on bail.

It had found Naumann – who was out on bail following a theft charge – had a propensity to commit crime.

VIA - heraldlive.co.za