Pretoria – 18-year-old Dante Kade Liang, who was arrested for allegedly killing fellow teenager, 17-year-old Hlompho Mbetse has been released on bail.
Mbetse, a King Edward VII School (KES) Grade 11 pupil was stabbed to death outside a Sandton nightclub on February 5.
On Tuesday, Magistrate Rennie Boshoff in the Alexandra Magistrate's Court in Johannesburg released Liang on R3 000 bail.
News24 reported that bail conditions set by Boshoff prevent Liang from contacting witnesses and he was also ordered to deactivate all his social media platforms, including WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook.
On Monday, Liang’s bail application was postponed, reportedly after his lawyer failed for arrive in court on time.
On Monday last week, Liang appeared before the Alexandra Magistrate’s Court, facing a charge of murder. His case was postponed to February 14.
At the time, National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson in Gauteng Phindi Mjonondwane said Mbetse was stabbed after a fight erupted outside a nightclub at Sandton.
“The charge stems from an incident wherein a 17-year-old teenager was allegedly stabbed to death after a fight broke out outside a nightclub in Sandton on Saturday, February 5, in the evening,” said Mjonondwane.
In a separate incident last month, the Thohoyandou Magistrate’s Court in Limpopo granted murder-accused 18-year-old Khodani Takalani R3 000 bail.
Takalani, from Vondwe village outside Thohoyandou, was arrested in December for the murder of his girlfriend.
“It is alleged that Khodani stabbed his girlfriend Tshinakaho Munyai to death on December 5, 2021,” Limpopo spokesperson for the NPA, Mashudu Malabi-Dzhangi said at the time.
She said in granting Takalani bail, the court gave him the following conditions:
• The applicant must relocate from Vondwe Phalama to Makwarela
• He must not go back to Vondwe Phalama until the completion of the case
• He must not interfere with the state witnesses and the complainant
The NPA said Takalani had initially deceived the police regarding the circumstances around the murder of his girlfriend.
“During the investigation, Khodani deceived the police that they were walking on the street when they were confronted by an unknown man armed with a knife. He (said he) ran away while the unknown man dragged the deceased into the bushes,” said Malabi-Dzhangi.
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