The High Court has moved itself to review a controversial bail granted to South African fugitive, Willie Steenkamp who arrived in the country as an investor using the name Dr. William Bilderberg.
Bilderberg and his partner Jacobus Johannes Christoffel Du Toit, who is currently on the run, are wanted in South Africa for defrauding potential investors through an investment company.
He was arrested in 2022 after the Malawi Police Fiscal and Fraud Department conducted an operation jointly with the Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA), Interpol, and Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services following an Interpol alert.
After being denied bail four times, he was granted bail on January 24 2024 by the principal resident magistrate Godfrey Balaka.
On the fourth attempt, chief resident magistrate Chisomo Msokera described it as resembling “match-fixing” in the way the State and defense handled the bail application.
High Court judge Anneline Kanthambi informed the State and Defense during the bail ruling review in Blantyre yesterday that the court took the initiative for the action.
Defense lawyer Shepher Mumba asked for 21 days to prepare for the review saying they were caught unawares with the action and had not time to prepare.
Justice Kanthambi adjourned the matter to February 27 this month to proceed with the review.
In earlier attempts, Msokera rejected the application while condemning the State and Steenkamp’s lawyers for trying to undermine justice, before recusing himself from the case.
“We must emphasize that public confidence in the authority of the court is undermined where the court is made to rubberstamp illogical decisions that do not reconcile with the law and the facts.
“This is why we refuse to take part in such an exercise. We refuse to be a referee that is blind to the interests of justice.
“We cannot help but marvel at how both the applicant and the State have reasoned and concluded that the applicant (Bilderberg) has ceased to be a flight risk.
“Before we conclude, we must express our concern with the way this application has been handled by the bar. We do not think the bar is incompetent.
“We think that the bar is deliberately putting the interests of the applicant ahead of the interests of justice. This is contrary to the counsel’s duty to the court. And it is more worrying when the prosecution decides to participate in such approach to the administration of justice,” reads part of the ruling.
Upon arriving in the country with $20 million (about K23.6 billion) as an investor last year, Bilderberg was granted citizenship and a passport number MWA097282 was given to him on September 27, 2022.
A sworn statement by his lawyer Felix Tambulasi shows that Bilderberg (Steenkamp) was welcomed into the country in October last year by government officials through the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) to invest in country as a Malawian.
It means Bilderberg (Steenkamp) was granted the citizenship and a local passport before he arrived in the country.
The sworn statement further said government later helped him establish his business, Bilderbert Company and later secure finances for the fugitive to start operating in Malawi.
