Since his first appearance on Monday to testify for the state, key witness Xolisile Botha Mbebetho has been ushered inside by at least five heavily armed Department of Correctional Services' members. Mbebetho also wears a bulletproof vest while in court to testify against murder-accused Stanley Bakili and others. 

Security has also been beefed up around the state's prosecutor Advocate Johan de Nysschen as well as inside the courtroom.

OFM News reported in 2019 that a former Grootvlei inmate, Manelisi Mpuru, admitted in court that he played middleman in transporting a threatening letter to Mbebetho. In this handwritten letter, which Bakili denies ever writing, he allegedly threatened to have Mbebetho as well as his girlfriend and child killed, should he continue with his testimony as a state witness. 

Mpuru testified that Bakili approached him shortly after he had been transferred from a prison in Kimberley to the Grootvlei Prison outside of Bloemfontein.

Siemens was gunned down, in broad daylight, at Preller Square in Bloemfontein in 2018.

Mbebetho was apprehended in Phahameng in Bloemfontein in October 2018 after being on the run since May 10, after he shot and killed Siemens in the basement parking area of Preller Square. He first appeared in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court on 12 October 2018 and he was in a leg brace. During his appearance, it was revealed that his life was in grave danger and his picture could not be taken by the media.

On Monday 23 November a member of the South African Police Services (SAPS) in the Free State was ousted for taking pictures of Mbebetho.

Eight men, including Bakili Molebatsi Mogoera, Kagiso Chabane, Mojalefa Jali Molusi, Moeketsi Lesia, Clive Tshivenga, Karabo Tau and Sizwe Mpati are in court for the alleged murder of Siemens. They are all between the ages of 29 and 56 and include three police officers, a disbarred advocate, an accused in separate double murder cases, and a military man. Judge Pitso Molitsoane adjourned the matter and will continue on Wednesday.

OFM News