R5,000 bail for farmer in murder trial

Twenty protesters, led by the ANC, shouted “Don’t give him bail” outside Komga’s magistrate’s court when Haga Haga farmer Grant Miles, 48, was given R5,000 bail on Friday.

Miles is charged with killing his farm labourer, Sithembele Ngene.

He is accused of hitting Ngene, 45, on the head with a knobkerrie on August 25 on Miles’s Valencia farm. Ngene died in hospital the next day.

Miles was escorted into court in chains which clattered as they hit the floor.

Investigating officer Sergeant Thembalethu Gqeka submitted an affidavit to magistrate Michelle Pillay stating that the police were not opposing bail.

In his affidavit, Gqeka said Miles was not a flight risk, but would leave Valencia farm and move to Stutterheim until the case was finished.

Miles had no outstanding cases and there was no possibility that he would interfere with the case, Gqeka submitted.

Gqeka said the investigation only needed a forensic report, which would arrive in 30 days.

When bail was granted, people in the gallery murmured in anger and started walking out until the magistrate told the court orderlies to keep the doors closed.

Earlier, Miles’s attorney, Henry van Breda, read out an affidavit stating his client’s passport had expired and was nonetheless taken from him by the police.

Van Breda said: “He owns a farm worth R2m, and his removable property is worth more than R100,000. He is divorced and supports his wife and two children. His daughter is in university and his son is in [an East London school]. He also takes care of his mother who lives on a farm [nearby]. If he is denied bail, his family will suffer.”

Van Breda said Miles was pleading not guilty on the basis that he acted in self-defence.

“[Ngene] came to him with a knife and he [Miles] used an knobkerrie to defend himself. This happened after [Ngene] had attacked another person with a knife on the farm,” he said.

The case was postponed to October 23.