A prominent Eastern Cape taxi boss and businessman has broken his silence about alleged links between his arrest last week and that of former SAA board member Ntombiyakhe Kwinana, alleging that Kwinana was unfairly arrested in Gauteng last week due to her close association with him.
Businessman Simphiwe “Gabs” Mtshala, who doubles as a Santaco leader in most of the province, at the weekend took the blame for Kwinana’s arrest, “as I am the target here, but the missile missed and hit a wrong person”.
Kwinana appeared in the East London magistrate’s court on Monday, facing serious charges, including extortion and malicious damage to property.
At the time of her arrest in Gauteng last week, police also said she had been linked to a series of alleged taxi violence cases.
The court postponed Kwinana’s bail hearing to Wednesday, meaning the 61-year-old will spend more than a week in custody as the state requested more time to look into possible previous and pending cases.
She made her first formal bail application appearance facing multiple charges of extortion, malicious damage to property, theft and pointing of a firearm.
The matter had been transferred from the Randburg magistrate’s court after her arrest on Monday last week.
Kwinana’s legal representative, Zama Somahela, questioned why Kwinana’s detention had been prolonged despite her arriving in East London last Tuesday.
He told the court Kwinana had suffered bruises during her time in custody and alleged she was manhandled by the state’s heavily armed police escort.
Appearing in A court before magistrate Rochelle Sam, Somahela asked his client to show her bruises. The state asked for a short adjournment and on return, Sam said the matter raised was not fit for her court and requested submissions for the bail hearing.
The matter was then transferred to B court.
Somahela told the court: “We alleged that the state, through the police, were acting malicious in this case. In the past six days, the state had time to do checks on my client’s previous cases and convictions, not to subject her to further detention.
“We were here from 9am this morning [Monday]. This is strange and it seems to be in contradiction of what my learned friends have presented.”
Somahela had requested the matter be postponed to Tuesday, however, his request was turned down as the court expected to hear more than 15 cases on that day.
A group of Kwinana supporters sang songs for her outside the court.
Court papers reveal that seven witnesses from eBhongweni had come forward with allegations of malicious damage to property of more than R1.2m combined.
This is said to have happened in 2024 and 2025.
For her extortion charge, Kwinana is accused of demanding that the 105 inhabitants living on her farm pay her monthly rental of R1,000 per household.
Mtshala referred to Kwinana’s dramatic nabbing in Midrand last week, and her subsequent court appearance at the Randburg magistrate’s court on March 18, as “collateral damage”.
Mtshala appeared in court on Wednesday last week facing similar charges which were withdrawn at the 11th hour.
Mtshala’s company, Gabs Security Services, had provided armed security services at Kwinana’s East London farm after she had a standoff with illegal land occupiers.
Meanwhile, the Mdantsane East London Taxi Association (Melta) on Monday said there would be a total shutdown of taxi services in the greater East London area on Tuesday as taxi operators would protest over what they called Mtshala’s “persecution”.
Melta spokesperson Welile Blaai late on Monday said they had held a meeting which resolved that all affiliated taxi operators in the area down tools and completely shut down all routes in protest over the recent arrests of Mtshala, who heads the association.
Since November 2024, Mtshala has been held for questioning by police four times, in some instances appeared before court, but each time the charges against him were withdrawn.
A poster doing the rounds on social media late on Monday stated that taxi operators would also accompany Mtshala to the East London magistrate's court on Tuesday where he was expected to hand himself over.
At the time of writing, it was unclear what the “hand over” was related to. The poster stated that he would be accompanied by “BCMM business, taxi associations and the community at large”.
Daily Dispatch
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