Update

KNYSNA NEWS - After being in custody for over 18 months, the case against former Knysna Taxi Forum secretary Mandla Tyololo, the last person to be charged with conspiracy to commit the murder of Victor Molosi, is finally ready for trial.

Following several postponements and unsuccessful bail applications, Tyololo's trial is scheduled to commence in the Knysna Magistrate's Court on 17 February. 

The 41-year-old, who is now represented by Dercksen attorneys, appeared briefly in court on 20 January before it was postponed for a final time.

Molosi was gunned down mere meters from his home in Concordia in July 2018 and Tyololo was subsequently arrested on 2 August. He was originally part of a group of four arrested in connection with the murder. 

His co-accused, former ward 4 councillor Velile Waxa, former municipal official Mawande Makhala and Cape Town resident Vela Patrick Dumile, were however convicted of murder on 11 December last year.

Tyololo's original bail application was denied on 26 October that year while he was represented by local lawyer Carl Jeppe who subsequently withdrew from the case.

The former KTF secretary later applied for bail again, this time under new facts, with his legal representative Advocate Ezra Morrison. Magistrate Flippie Hendricks however turned his application down on 27 November 2018. 

Morrison, under the instruction from her client, appealed the decision in the Western Cape High Court, but bail was once again denied the following month on 22 December.

They then applied for bail again, this time with new facts including Tyololo's emotional status, the strength of the state's case and an incomplete investigation. 

Morrison also indicated that her client was traumatised by his incarceration. Hendricks said in his judgment that the facts presented before him were not new facts and therefore, the "application under new facts is denied."

After exhausting all his options, Tyololo also appealed the decision in the Western Cape High Court on 10 May 2019 and this attempt also fell flat.