Sibusiso Albert Tshabalala will enjoy Christmas and New Year outside of prison after the Nelspruit Commercial Crimes Court postponed his matter for the 28th time since his conviction in October 2021.

Tshabalala appeared before Magistrate Marlene Gryvenstein in the Commercial Crimes Court of the Regional Division of Mpumalanga, sitting in Mbombela, on Wednesday, December 10.

Lowvelder previously reported that he and his wife, Ntombizodwa Katlego Tshabalala, were arrested following allegations that the couple had defrauded their own business, eBundu Lodge, by issuing fake invoices and pocketing the cash.

Ntombizodwa was acquitted of the charges.

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During Wednesday’s proceedings, the magistrate postponed the matter to March 4 next year for further case management.

Tshabalala was represented by Adv Nico du Plessis who requested the court to postpone the matter to March next year, sparking an objection from the state.

The state responded to the request, saying March next year was a long time away and proposed that the matter be postponed to the last week of January.

Gryvenstein pointed out that the matter would eventually be handled by another presiding officer since her contract was coming to an end in February next year.

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“My contract here in Mbombela comes to an end on February 27, 2026. I have been instructed not to deal with matters that I cannot finish. I will hand over the documents relating to this matter to the newly appointed senior magistrate,” said Gryvenstein.

After some interactions with both the state and the defence, Gryvenstein postponed the matter to March 4 next year.

Before the postponement, the state pointed out that Tshabalala was convicted of fraud in October 2021.

He was supposed to have been sentenced on November 5, 2021.

Magistrate D van Rooyen convicted Tshabalala, but had to later recuse himself from the matter before he could impose a sentence, publicly announcing that he was offered a R10 000 bribe.

According to Van Rooyen, the supposed bribe was aimed at influencing him to give Tshabalala a noncustodial sentence and he was even told which sentence would be suitable.

Tshabalala’s legal team approached the Mpumalanga Division of the High Court and applied for leave to appeal the conviction.

The court returned the matter to the Nelspruit Commercial Crime’s Court and ordered it to sentence Tshabalala.

That was when Tshabalala and his legal team approached the Supreme Court of Appeal which granted them leave to appeal.

This means a full bench must listen to the appeal in the Mpumalanga Division of the High Court sitting in Mbombela.

The stumbling block, however, is that the full court records have not been furnished to the High Court.

On the other hand, the state insists that the appeal has lapsed in terms of time frame and, therefore, should not be entertained.

Speaking on behalf of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Adv Kobus van der Walt told the court that it must first prosecute the fact that the appeal application was made later that the stipulated time frames for appeals in criminal cases.

“We first have to deal with the fact that the appeal has lapsed. The court must go ahead and sentence the accused if it finds that we are correct to say the appeal has lapsed,” Van der Walt told the court.