Zurenah Smit's bail application postponed pending new judge's ruling
Zurenah Smit, accused of murdering her husband, remains in custody as her bail application is postponed pending a new judge's decision.
Image: Chevon Booysen
Zurenah Smit, accused of murdering her husband, Stefan Smit, will remain in Pollsmoor Prison's hospital section as a new judge is appointed to hear her bail reinstatement application.
Meanwhile, Smit is yet to be admitted to Valkenberg Psychiatric Hospital for her 30-day evaluation to determine if she can follow court proceedings, as her place on the waiting list, despite being expedited, is moving at a snail’s pace.
She is currently number five on the waiting list, having moved up one space from her previous court appearance at the end of March.
Smit has been detained at the prison hospital section and has sought to have her R10,000 bail reinstated after it was previously revoked by the court.
Judge Derek Wille previously revoked Smit’s bail after she, being under cross-examination by the State during trial, said her deceased husband was fetching her when she was feeling ill during court proceedings.
Smit had told the court that she was going to the doctor and said: “I'm going to the doctor. I'm waiting for my husband to fetch me.”
This week, Judge Wille said a new judge will have to hear Smit’s bail reinstatement application so as not to have to make a credibility finding on Smit while her murder trial is still ongoing at the Western Cape High Court.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila confirmed the court’s decision.
The matter, which appeared briefly in the Western Cape High Court on Thursday, had been postponed to May 22 for a new judge to rule on her application for the reinstatement of her bail and bail conditions, said Ntabazalila.
Smit, alongside her co-accused ex-cop Derek Sait, pleaded not guilty to all 16 criminal charges preferred against them.
Some of the charges the two face, and if sustained, carry a prescribed sentence of life imprisonment.
Sait remains out on bail of R10,000.
In the tragic and unfortunate criminal trial, a Section 204 witness testified that he was hired as a hitman by Smit, 54, who said she would pay him when she received her inheritance.
However, Smit’s hopes of benefiting from her deceased winemaker’s estate had been dashed when High Court Judge Babalwa Mantame ruled, in April 2022, that “the bloody hand does not inherit”.
The court heard that Smit had allegedly provided the hitman with a firearm, which was previously stolen from the deceased's safe.
After drugging him with sleeping tablets, Stefan was shot and killed in what was supposed to be portrayed as a farm robbery/murder.
The court previously said the accused face a “tsunami of prima facie evidence” against them.