South Africa-based Zimbabwean businessman, Frank Buyanga Sadiqi, is set to spend this year’s Christmas festivities in jail after he was denied bail by a South African court this Friday.
Buyanga was seeking bail on charges of contravention of the Immigration Act and possession of fraudulent South African documents.
He will be back in court on February 7, 2023, NewsDay reported.
Early this month, South Africa’s Randburg Magistrate Court granted Frank Buyanga R150 000 bail, but Buyanga remained behind bars on fresh charges.
Buyanga was arrested last month following an Interpol warrant of arrest issued by Zimbabwe.
The warrant of arrest was controversially cancelled by Harare Magistrate Judith Taruvinga before the High Court reinstated it.
The South African court granted him bail on the reason that the Interpol warrant was still in effect.
But Buyanga’s joy was short-lived after it emerged fresh charges had been noted with another magistrate.
The 43-year-old was arrested in South Africa on 10 November 2022 on charges of kidnapping his son in Harare in 2020 and on charges of immigration law violations, forgery and contempt of court.
Buyanga, who is involved in a legal battle over the custody of his minor son with ex-girlfriend Chantelle Muteswa, claims President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his family are involved in his legal woes.
He argues there is no merit in this matter that warrants his arrest and detention to the extent that the State is justified in opposing bail.