East London Advocate Mike Maseti is seething over a murder accused’s bail application that has been postponed on no fewer than 20 occasions. A Daily Dispatch report says Maseti’s client, Mazulwandile Mgijima, is charged with murder and attempted murder following the slaying of two high-profile East London taxi bosses in 2017. ‘I have been an advocate for 16 years and I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s unprecedented,’ Maseti said at the Mdantsane Magistrate’s Court. ‘Bail applications are supposed to be urgent applications. My client is being victimised by the justice system.’ Mgijima’s first bail application appearance was in March 2018, and documents provided to the Daily Dispatch by Maseti show that neither the investigating officer nor the prosecutor was opposed to him being granted bail of R10 000. However, bail was denied by Magistrate Fezeka Monakali – on the basis that Mgijima’s phone records showed he had been in contact with the other alleged assailants. Believing that these grounds were not adequate, Maseti took the matter to the Eastern Cape High Court (Bhisho), which submitted that a different magistrate should hear the bail application before November 2018. Although the matter was now in front of Magistrate Sithembiso Rafuza, the case was continually postponed ‘easily more than 20 times,’ Maseti said. He said the situation had become a ‘comedy of errors’.