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The accused pair in high jumper Jacques Freitag’s murder investigation dropped their bail application on Wednesday.
The two main suspects in the investigation into the brutal murder of former high jump world champion Jacques Freitag made their third appearance in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday morning, 31 July.
Controversial former lawyer Rudolph “Rudie” Lubbe, 52, and his mistress Shantellè Oosthuizen, 42, have dropped their bail applications and urged the state to grant an extension until August 12 for further investigation.
According to the official charge sheet, the couple are charged with “unlawfully and willfully” conspiring with Freitag to murder Oosthuizen’s fiancée, Louis Harmse, between May and June this year. Harmse survived the attack.
They were also charged with the murder of 42-year-old Freitag.
Compared to the tailored suit and tie in which he had previously appeared in court, an unshaven Lubbe made his appearance wearing unbrushed hair and a light grey tracksuit top.
Steve Hefferman of Hefferman (SDH) Attorneys handling the couple’s legal representation along with Shaun Hefferman and advocate Jack Bester said they would be held in custody at the Pretoria Moot police station.
This after state prosecutor Liana Bosman requested that they stay with the South African Police Service (Saps) Pretoria Moot to provide easy access to Lubbe and Oosthuizen for turn-out procedures.
The 2.04m high jumper’s decomposing body was found on 1 July with three gunshot wounds, multiple stab wounds and a broken arm in a field near Zandfontein cemetery, Pretoria West.
Freitag’s sister, Chrissie Lewis, told the Sunday Tmes that Freitag’s face was unrecognizable when his body was found and that her boyfriend, Theo Botha, could only identify him through a tattoo.
The investigating officer at Pretoria’s Hercules police station, Captain Martin Smith, was approached for comment by The Citizen on Wednesday morning and confirmed that Lubbe and Oosthuizen were the only suspects in the murder investigation at this stage.
“We are working non-stop to try to find the firearm and knife with which Freitag was killed before his body was dumped in the field,” he said.
Oosthuizen and Lubbe disappeared after being questioned in connection with the grim murder of Freitag. They were arrested on Tuesday, 16 July at a guesthouse in Sabie, Mpumalanga, after a brief but intense search for the couple.
According to private investigator Hennie Viljoen of Specialist Security Services (CNS) who worked with police in the investigation, the couple claimed they were not on the run but “on holiday in Sabie” and unaware of the warrants for arrest.
Freitag was last seen alive when he left a guest house – 4km from the cemetery – on foot on June 18. He was reportedly dropped off at the institution the day before by Lubbe who picked him up at 01:00 at the Bronkhorstspruit home of his mother, Hendrien Pieters, to allegedly pay him for “a job”.
It is believed that the high jumper’s involvement in the complicated love triangle between Lubbe, Oosthuizen and Harmse amounts to a “botched hit”.
Harmse previously told Rapport that he was allegedly attacked by Freitag with a brick at an apartment next to Lubbe’s rental house in Montana Park on June 13.
According to the publication, Freitag allegedly knew both Lubbe and Oosthuizen with whom he allegedly regularly used drugs.
Lubbe was removed from the role of lawyers in 2006 following complaints from the Law Society of the Northern provinces that he was unprofessional and stole money from his trust account.
He also made headlines in August 2004 after being arrested for allegedly threatening to murder his then-wife, Magdaline.
Freitag was just 21 when he won the gold medal in the men’s high jump event at the 9th IAAF World Athletics Championships at the Stade de France in Paris on 25 August 2003.
He still holds the African record with a height of 2.38m he set in a competition in 2005 and is one of only 10 athletes, including Usain Bolt, to win world championship titles at the youth, junior and senior levels of an athletics event.
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