THOHOYANDOU - Hundreds of people who had invested their money in the Tanganani/Kopanang pyramid scheme demanded that no bail should be granted to the couple arrested for allegedly defrauding them six years ago.

Investors were chanting outside the court before the bail application of the couple last Friday. Frank Kutumba Kay Kay Kwezi (33) and his lover Dorah Maake Pitso (30) briefly appeared for a bail application in Thohoyandou District Court B.

The investors sighed with relief when Magistrate MSR Mantsha announced that the bail application was postponed to Thursday, 11 July. This was an arrangement between the state and the couple's legal representatives.

However, Mirror was reliably informed that the bail application was postponed so that it could be heard by a "neutral magistrate" who would be coming from outside the Far North area, for fear that a local magistrate might have interest in the case.

Shonisani Madega of Makwarela, who had invested R10 000, said, "the couple should not be given bail as they might flee the country." Another investor, Wilson Magoro, said the couple might commit suicide if they were given bail.

Kwezi, a Zambian national, and Pitso, a South African from Northwest Province, first appeared in Thohoyandou Magistrate's Court on June 28.

The couple was arrested on June 23 and 25 respectively after a long run from the police since March 1997, when they allegedly disappeared with more than R15 million of the investors' money.

Police spokesperson, Captain Ailwei Mushavhanamadi, said the couple was running an illegal pyramid scheme, called Kopanang/Tanganani, in Thohoyandou six years ago.

Although the police tried to warn the community to stop investing money in that scheme, more than 500 000 people invested their money in the scheme. Some of the people invested as much as R100 000.

After a long search, a Limpopo commercial branch unit, which is headed by Captain Takalani Nematswerani, managed to nab the couple following a tip-off from members of the community. The couple had some differences after Pitso found Kwezi with another girl in their posh house in Cape Town last year December. She then sold the R2,4 million house, which was registered in her name, for R1,8 million, without Kwezi's consent.

The police arrested Pitso in Northwest Province last week Sunday before they arrested Kwezi, who was renting a flat in Cape Town.

Nematswerani said the State would oppose bail as the release of the suspects might hamper investigations. Nematswerani said they were busy determining all the properties owned by the couple in order to recover the investors' money.

The police have already established that five upper class houses were registered in Pitso's name, as well as eleven flashy cars. It is also known that Kwezi had bought a tombstone worth R110 000 for his in-laws.

Nemantswerani said they were going to freeze all the couple's accounts at different banks. He appealed to the investors who still have documentation of the money they had invested to phone him at 082 752 2136. More arrests are expected in this case.