Police spokesperson, Mohale Ramatseba, confirms that all the suspects will remain in custody, following their second appearance in the Hartswater Magistrate's Court on Thursday.

The group appeared in the same court last month when the case was postponed to allow for further police investigation.

Earlier Ramatseba told OFM News that one of the accused, Kgomotso Mpumlwana, would be the only one applying for bail. He stated at the time that there was a possibility that the other four accused, Realeboga Manyedi, Tshepaone Melato, Donald Seolesang, and Tshepo Visagie, will abandon their bail application and remain in custody.

The group was arrested on 28 July for allegedly attacking and murdering the Brand family at their house on their smallholding on 26 July 2020. The national police spokesperson, Vish Naidoo, said the incident was reported to the police after family members residing in Johannesburg suspected that something was wrong when they were unable to get in touch with their parents and sister.

All three family members could not be found and their two sedans were also missing. Following the police’s 72-hour action plan, the body of the couple's daughter, Elzabie Brand, was found in a field in Taung in North West, and the bodies of her parents, Danie and Breggie Brand, were found in Takaneng Village near Taung on the same afternoon.

Three of the suspects, Manyedi, Melato, and Mpumlwana were arrested after being spotted in the victim’s car in the area of Pudimoe in the Northern Cape. Seolesang and Visagie were also arrested on the same day.

OFM News