Tete murder accused denied bail as Mdantsane court rules on wheelchair claim

Two men charged in connection with the murder of former boxing champion Zolani Tete have been denied bail by the Mdantsane Magistrate’s Court in the Eastern Cape.

Uzuzole Goqwana, described in the state’s case as the alleged mastermind, and Sinebhongo Qase, alleged to have acted as an intermediary, appeared before Magistrate Anton Pretorius on Friday, 18 September 2026. The court refused their applications. As The Citizen reported that same day, the pair returned to the dock for the decision.

They are among four men facing eight charges linked to Tete’s killing. The two men accused of carrying out the shooting have already abandoned their bail applications.

The medical argument, and why it failed

Goqwana’s application rested on his medical condition. He is paralysed and uses a wheelchair, and his legal team argued that his health limitations and his need for complex daily medical assistance amounted to the exceptional circumstances the law requires before bail can be granted in a matter of this kind.

Magistrate Pretorius did not accept that argument. He said a circumstance that merely favours an accused person is not the same thing as an exceptional one.

“The mere fact that a circumstance is favourable to an accused does not make it exceptional,” he said. “The circumstance must be unusual, or must exist to an exceptional degree.”

The magistrate set out the test the court applied. Exceptional circumstances, he said, must be unusual, extraordinary, remarkable, peculiar or different, and ordinary factors do not become exceptional simply because they are combined.

On the medical question specifically, Pretorius ruled that a complaint about inadequate treatment in custody does not by itself make release on bail the right remedy. He noted that while one facility could not meet the applicant’s medical needs, the St Albans Correctional Centre has a hospital section.

“The applicant has not placed evidence before this court establishing that St Albans cannot adequately address his medical needs,” he said. There was, he added, no medical proof that the applicant’s condition would deteriorate if he were transferred to or kept in custody.

The court concluded that Goqwana had failed to prove truly exceptional circumstances, and that bail could not be justified.

What the state alleges

Tete was killed on 21 August 2026, allegedly attacked by two armed men outside his home in Mdantsane. A 27-year-old woman described as his girlfriend was seriously wounded in the shooting. His three young children were not injured.

The state’s case, set out in an affidavit by investigating officer Nkululeko Mtati, links Goqwana to the alleged murder plot. According to that affidavit, Goqwana believed Tete was behind a July 2025 shooting that left him paralysed and dependent on a wheelchair. He is alleged to have believed that Tete had targeted him in retaliation for an alleged relationship with the former champion’s estranged wife, Thulisa.

Qase is alleged by the state to have served as an intermediary, connecting the suspected hitmen to the alleged plot.

What South African readers will notice

Bail judgments of this kind turn on a test that South African courts apply every day, and the reasoning here is a plain statement of it. The bar for exceptional circumstances is deliberately high, and a court will ask for evidence, not assertion, that custody cannot meet an accused person’s needs.

The case now moves into the trial phase. Four men face eight charges between them, and two of the four have already abandoned their bail applications. The remaining two will stay in custody following Friday’s ruling.

The matter will return to court as the prosecution builds its case. No trial date has been set in the information available at the time of publication.

The killing of a former world champion outside his own home in Mdantsane has drawn attention across the Eastern Cape, where Tete built his career and where the case is being heard.

Source: The Citizen, JUST IN: Boxer Zolani Tete murder accused denied bail