Following his third court appearance on a charge of theft of funds from the Living Legends Legacy trust fund, celebrated playwright and actor Welcome Msomi was once again denied bail by Judge Phillip Venter at the South Gauteng High Court in Palm Ridge on April 10 and remains in police custody.
The accused appeared haggard and thinner than usual, a condition his legal representative, Benito Mongolele, tried to use in court when he pleaded for his client to be granted R5 000 bail.
However, Msomi was declared a flight risk.
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The investigating officer, Const Nobuhle Sibiya, told the court there was nothing that binds the accused to South Africa should he be released on bail. She said the address Msomi had provided to the police was that of a house owned by his son, who now wants nothing to do with his father.
The prosecutor, France Mhlongo, accused Msomi of evading the police by relocating from Johannesburg to Durban when he heard they were looking for him in connection with the theft. He also used false names when booking himself into two hotels during this time, a ploy the court believes was aimed at evading arrest.
The court also heard how, soon after the R8-million was transferred from the Department of Arts and Culture on September 18, 2018, to the trust fund account, Msomi allegedly made 61 transactions where he transferred various amounts of money from as little as R40 to several hundred thousand rand from the trust fund account into his personal bank account.
The court heard how R1.2-m was allegedly withdrawn from the trust fund account by the suspect on September 26. The following day a further R950 000 was allegedly again withdrawn from the account by the same means and by the same person.
As the trial drew to a close for the day, Judge Venter withheld the bail application decision pending the verification of Msomi’s physical address.
Msomi was among several local veteran artists nominated by Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa in 2017 to administer and distribute trust funds to South African artists 70 years and older who were deemed to have contributed to political change and the advancement of democracy. The funds were also supposed to cushion the plight of elderly or retired artists, who often die homeless and penniless.
In March, just two months after the trust fund was launched, Letta Mbulu, chairperson of the Living Legends Legacy Programme (LLLP), announced that R8-m had vanished without a trace from the LLLP’s coffers. News of the missing funds was received with scorn and mixed emotions by many in the arts industry.
Msomi was arrested by the Hawks Serious Commercial Crimes Investigating Unit on March 15 at a Durban hotel and was charged with theft. He was then transported to Ekurhuleni, where he made a brief appearance in the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court on March 18. The case was postponed to April 2 and the accused remained in custody.
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On April 2 the case was postponed to April 10.
Durban-born Msomi rose to theatre fame and stardom in the early 1960s when he appeared in Bertha Egnos’ internationally acclaimed play Ipi Tombi, which later toured the US, UK and other European countries. He cemented his reputation when he adapted William Shakespeare’s Macbeth in isiZulu in the production uMabatha in the mid-’60s.
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