UPDATE: 2pm –Bail of R7000 has been granted to the accused Mbuso Mandela by Magistrate Pieter du Plessis, after he pleaded not guilty to charges of rape, but will remain in house arrest until the date of the trial, which will be set on 16 September 2015.
Watch our journalist reporting from court:
INITIAL REPORT: The matter against the 24-year-old man accused of raping an underage girl in Greenside, has been adjourned at Johannesburg  Magistrates’ Courts.
The accused has yet to plead.
Media and members of the public crammed court benches as the defense, Advocate Miranda Veldsman, argued that the applicant should be released on exceptional circumstances based on superficial evidence supplied.
Veldsman also stated the case should be rendered as a schedule 5 offence in accordance with the sexual offences act of 2007, because the state is yet to prove she is under the age of legal consent.
Veldsman read excerpts of the applicant’s affidavit, which stated that he wants to be  tried as a normal person and not receive preferential treatment because of the family he belongs to.
The defense gave the impression that the  applicant felt the accusations were unjust and that he wanted to clear his name.
Proceedings are set to resume shortly.
