Peet Viljoen faces uphill battle for bail as prosecution presents damning evidence
Flashy former celebrity lawyer Peet Viljoen will on July 23 have to pull out all the stops to refute more than 480 pages of documents handed to court by the prosecution as to why he should not be granted bail.
Viljoen’s legal team only presented the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court in Pretoria with an affidavit last week made by him in his bid to obtain bail. In contrast, prosecutor Willem van Zyl hit back with a thick bundle of affidavits made by several of his alleged victims in the Tammy Taylor saga and others, in which he is painted as being threatening and verbally abusive in some cases.
Viljoen is facing 400 charges, including fraud, theft, corruption, forgery and uttering, linked to an alleged R27.6 million Johannesburg Property Company property fraud scheme. Viljoen said in his affidavit that the State has a weak case against him, as the matter has been ongoing for 16 years and many of the witnesses will not be able to recollect all the facts.
The State, meanwhile, handed affidavits to court from some of Viljoen’s co-accused who had pleaded guilty. The affidavits incriminate Viljoen under oath. Viljoen will also have to explain past social media posts in which he was outspoken, criticising certain judges and black South Africans.
In anticipation that the prosecution would use his social media posts against him, Viljoen last week asked magistrate Nicca Setshogoe to look at them in context. He explained that he believes it is his constitutional duty “to better the governmental system for the people in South Africa”. Viljoen admitted that his posts were at times “overly emotional” but submitted the court should not place too much weight on them.
“Where such social media reactions exceed the bounds of propriety or hurt people, I apologise,” he stated. His counsel asked the magistrate whether they should translate some of the posts which are in Afrikaans to English for her, so that she fully understood it. Magistrate Setshogoe declined and said she is fully able to understand Afrikaans.
Another aspect that will need clarity from Viljoen is his statement earlier before an American judge who heard his extradition application regarding his father. Viljoen said he wanted to return to South Africa to be with his father, who has prostate cancer. However, when the investigation team questioned his sister about this, she said she had no knowledge of it.
Viljoen, meanwhile, has big plans for the future, which include applying to be readmitted as an attorney – a process which will serve before the court soon. However, Legal Practice Council slammed this, saying readmittance is not possible while he has a criminal trial hanging over his head.
Viljoen also told the court he and his wife Mel plan to resume their beauty and nail business, as they have about R6 million worth of stock. This was revealed in his affidavit while a BackaBuddy campaign was launched to raise R400,000 for his legal fees. The administrators, meanwhile, closed the account down.
If he is released on bail, Viljoen said he and his wife will stay with a family member in Pretoria. But given the host of allegations against him, it is clear that this will be an uphill battle for Viljoen.
