This application sparked a court process to determine whether these four men - who have been in custody for over two years since their arrest - deserve to be released from custody. Currently, three of the eight murder accused in the Siemens case are out on bail.

CityMed Managing Director Louis Siemens was shot four times assassination-style in the basement parking of the Preller Square Shopping Complex in May 2018. Ten men have been arrested for allegedly playing various direct and indirect roles in orchestrating and carrying out the murder. Eight of the accused are standing trial while the others have turned state witnesses.

Judge Pitso Molitsoane says he could not see any compelling reasons for the release of the suspects from detention until the continuation of the trial. Delivering a broad and detailed judgment, Molitsoane said the defence counsels approached the application wrongfully. He said the accused failed to deal with some of the other charges against them. The Siemens murder trial has been postponed to 12 to 30 April 2021 for continuation. There will then be a break of about 14 days before the finalisation of the trail from 17 May to 18 June 2021.

Murder accused Stanley Bakili, Bloemfontein's Bayswater police detective Molebatsi Mogoera, court orderly Kagiso Chabane, and former SANDF member Clive Tshivenga brought this application before the High Court.

The accused on bail include police captain Moeketsi Lesia, disbarred advocate Karabo Tau, and Information Technology specialist Sizwe Mpati.

Mojalefa Jali Molosi, a repeat offender, is the only suspect involved in the case who did not pursue bail. This as the man still has separate criminal matters to answer to.

Since the trial started on 28 October 2019, almost two dozen people took the stand, including high profile government officials such as Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi, the Free State Health HOD David Motau, and former provincial Health MEC Benny Malakoane. They denied having any involvement or knowledge of bribes being paid by accused number one, Stanley Bakili, on behalf of the deceased for the amendment of CityMed’s hospital licenses to allow for more beds.

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