After nearly a month in custody, popular musician and man of the cloth, Bishop Roxley Masevhe, finally found his freedom. On Thursday, 1 February, he was granted bail of R20,000 with conditions by the Thohoyandou Magistrate Court. The case was postponed to 15 April.
Masevhe, who is alleged to have raped a 17-year-old girl, has been trying to be freed on bail since his arrest. The girl's ordeal is alleged to have started in January 2023 and lasted until she laid a charge against him early in January this year, and he was arrested soon after, on 8 January. Masevhe's bail application had been postponed on several occasions since.
Among the conditions imposed on his bail is that he can have no contact with the victim or her mother. He is not allowed to interfere with witnesses and must report at the Sibasa Correctional Centre every last Friday of the month. He was further ordered to surrender all travelling documents and is forbidden to apply for new ones.
The granting of bail was received with mixed feelings by those following the case, but Masevhe's fellow churchmen were there to make sure the accused bishop was released before they left the court on Thursday.