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Cape Town - A court orderly who allegedly accepted a R150 bribe to allow an awaiting-trial prisoner to have sex with his girlfriend objected on Monday to being sent for a psychiatric assessment.
At his previous appearance in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Cape Town, Magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg ordered that Warrant Officer Bongani Ndikho, 42, be sent to the Valkenberg psychiatric hospital for 30 days' observation.
On Monday, in a different court, defence lawyer Chantelle Morgan told Magistrate W Rixana that Ndikho was now at the top of the list of people awaiting a vacant bed at the hospital.
However, Ndikho was adamant he did not want to be sent for observation, and said his private doctor had agreed there was no need for it, Morgan said.
As hard as she had tried to explain to him that he had to be assessed in terms of a court order, he did not understand and was adamant that there was no need for it, she said.
With Ndikho in the dock was John Maggot, the awaiting-trial prisoner who allegedly gave Ndikho the bribe for sex.
No sooner had Sonnenberg explained to Ndikho that the court order for his evaluation had to be obeyed than Maggot asked if he could have "free bail".
Prosecutor Simone Liedeman told the court Maggot was out on warning in the current matter, but was serving a prison sentence in another, unrelated case.
Sonnenberg asked him: "How can the court extend your warning in this matter if you are serving a prison sentence in another matter?"
Ndikho faces two counts of corruption. One relates to the alleged R150 bribe for sex, in the holding cells at the Wynberg Regional Court in Cape Town. According to the other, he allegedly received bribes totalling R12 000 to smuggle dagga parcels to Maggot.
Maggot similarly faces two counts of corruption, as the alleged giver of the bribes.
Both also face one charge each of dealing in drugs.
The matter was postponed to 17 September.
