Anabela Rungo was granted R10 000 bail by the Cape Town Magistrate's Court on Wednesday.
Image: Chevon Booysen
Anabela Rungo, mother of former Miss SA participant Chidemma Adetshina, has been granted R10 000 bail by the Cape Town Magistrate's Court.
Rungo has been classified as a prohibited person in South Africa as she does not hold official documents.
On Wednesday afternoon, magistrate Sadiqah Guendouz issued strict bail conditions to Rungo, who is to remain under house arrest for the duration of her bail and is only allowed to leave her residence in Summer Greens for court appearances and for consulting with a lawyer.
She is also allowed to attend the Home Affairs offices if it is required of her to do so but is barred from making any applications for any documents and is not allowed to attend the embassy or send anybody on her behalf.
The matter was postponed for further investigations to May 8.
Rungo faces seven charges of contravention of the Immigration Act.
According to the charge sheet, Rungo remained in the country after being declared a prohibited person and had unlawfully and intentionally come “into possession of an identity certificate belonging to another (and presented it as her own) or belonging to any person other than the person it belongs to” and she had unlawfully submitted “an application to the Department of Home Affairs where she identifies herself as Sara Moyo”.
As her family sat in the gallery and listened carefully to the proceedings that had been postponed earlier in the morning, Rungo became emotional upon hearing that she had been released on bail and was observed blinking back tears.
Last week, the court heard that Rungo’s South African passport is still outstanding as a piece of evidence to be handed to the State.
Before proceeding with the bail matter, Guendouz hit the State with a curveball, threatening to recuse the court of the matter on grounds of bias, stating that she had been aware of the matter before Rungo’s arrest and court appearance as the matter had garnered large public interest on social media last year, which led to Adetshina’s withdrawal from the Miss SA competition.
Following a short adjournment in which Guendouz ordered State prosecutor Jacques du Plessis to “find a magistrate who was not familiar with the case” if the court should recuse itself, Guendouz returned from the adjournment saying she would not recuse “while she was not reluctant to recuse” the matter.
Guendouz previously averred that the State brought a “half-baked” case to court and stated that the court “did not want to keep anybody in custody unnecessarily” and further stated that the right to freedom was a constitutional right and “not a trial right”.
The State was also further rapped over the knuckles by Guendouz for being in contempt of court when they failed to have their heads of arguments prepared on Wednesday morning, as the court had ordered during the last bail hearing. At around 3pm on Wednesday, the State presented copies of its heads of argument during the bail hearing.
“What has become blatantly embarrassing to the State is that they are playing for time. Everybody has discussed this matter before Rungo was arrested. It was a matter widely discussed on social media and Home Affairs had issued a statement in this regard (last year),” said Guendouz.
According to Du Plessis, the arrest of Rungo on February 15 was “coincidental as she was not being sought at the time”.
Handing down judgment, Guendouz drew the attention of SA taxpayers to the matter, stating that whether Rungo remained in custody or not, she would in any event still be regarded as a “prohibited person with a roof over her head and food in her stomach”.
“Also taking judicial notice, I want to make note of a trend where I see daily how random people are stopped in the street by law enforcement and asked to show their papers, only for the families to show up at court with valid permits. How embarrassing. This is reminiscent of the dompas laws,” said Guendouz.
Rungo was arrested after Adetshina was spotted in the Mother City.
A video posted on social media showed her sitting with a group of ladies at a restaurant. South Africans expressed concern about how Adetshina was able to return to the country after her South African ID was revoked and her travel documents were seized by Home Affairs.
chevon.booysen@inl.co.za