While it’s not standard procedure for a court to sit on public holidays, Molemo ‘Jub Jub’ Maarohanye was granted bail after his lawyers successfully petitioned for his release on an urgent basis.
On Tuesday the Johannesburg high court granted the TV personality R5,000 bail after hearing his urgent application. He was detained on June 14 in Edenvale, Johannesburg, following an alleged altercation with an Uber driver and charged with kidnapping, unlawful discharge of a firearm and defeating the ends of justice.
Sowetan’s sister publication TimesLive reported that Maarohanye claimed he became concerned after struggling to contact his girlfriend while she was travelling home, with repeated calls allegedly dropping due to network problems.
In his affidavit, the musician told the court that tension escalated only after the vehicle eventually arrived at his Eikenhof home and he confronted the driver about the delays.
“It was an exception to the ordinary rules; it’s not something that happens every day.”
— Dr Llewelyn Curlewis
The situation spiralled into what he describes as a chaotic altercation now forming the basis of the criminal case against him.
According to the affidavit, Maarohanye eventually went outside after noticing the e-hailing vehicle arrive at his property, where he says he confronted the driver over the delays.
Legal analyst Abigail Ngobeni said if the applicant proves urgency, then the court will hear the matter on an urgent basis even on public holidays.
Ngobeni said that the applicant has to prove that if the matter is not heard on an urgent basis, they will suffer exceptional harm.
Exceptional harm in law refers to a high threshold standard of injury, damage or prejudice that goes far beyond normal emotional distress or standard commercial inconvenience.
“If the arrested person [is sick] and can argue that correctional facilities are not suitable, then it can be urgent because if they keep you longer, your health will deteriorate,” Ngobeni said, adding that the applicant has to prove urgency and not self-created urgency.
Senior lecturer at the University of Pretoria, Dr Llewelyn Curlewis explained that bail in its nature is urgent because the person’s liberty is at stake.
Curlewis said Maarohanye’s case was an exception to the rules.
“Because the high court should not intervene where the matter has not been attended to by the lower court first, but I suppose depending on what he conveyed in his affidavit and why he thinks it is so urgent, there is something exceptional that the court used in its discretion to intervene, but it was an exception to the ordinary rules; it’s not something that happens every day,” he said.
Sowetan
