Legal Aid lawyer to be appointed for the accused

Three men accused of murdering former world heavyweight boxing champion Corrie Sanders made a second appearance in the Brits Magistrate’s Court on Monday.

“The matter has been postponed until October 22,” National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Medupe Simasiku said.

A Legal Aid lawyer needed to be appointed for one of them. The three remained in custody.

Paida Fish, 19, Samuel Mabena, 27, and Chris Moyo, 25, each face a count of murder and three charges of robbery with aggravating circumstances.

They were arrested in the Oukasie informal settlement, near Brits, on September 27 after police received a tip off.

Police recovered a cellphone, vehicle keys, a purse, a handbag, and cash believed to have been stolen during the robbery in which Sanders was shot on September 22.

“Police then went to a second address and a third suspect was arrested,” Brigadier Thulani Ngubane said after the arrest.

The three men are Zimbabweans.

Sanders was at the Thatch Haven Country Lodge, in Brits, when armed robbers entered and began firing shots at random. Sanders was hit in the hand and stomach and died in the Kalafong hospital the next day.

The three first appeared in court on October 1, when the matter was postponed for further investigation.

Mabena appeared in court on the same day in connection with the murder of farmer Mauritz Oberholzer near Brits on September 5.  

Sanders won the World Boxing Organisation’s heavyweight title in March 2003 by dropping Ukrainian Wladimir Klitsckho in the second round in Hanover, Germany. He retired five years later.