THOHOYANDOU - The former boss of the Tanganani Pyramid Scheme, Dorcus Mado Pitso (30), is still languishing in prison cells, after she failed to pay the R50 000 bail she was granted by the court.

Pitso, whose bail application was postponed from July 5, last year, was finally granted R50 000 bail by Magistrate Jonathan Rapudi, on Wednesday, April 9, before a packed Thohoyandou Magistrate's Court.

Pitso, who appeared with her lover Frank Kutumab Kwezi (33), said through the Venda University based Legal Aid Clinic representatives, she could only afford R2 000 bail. However, the State Prosecutor, Bongani Chauke, said Pitso should be given R100 000 bail, considering the seriousness of her case.

The Limpopo Commercial Unit arrested Pitso and Kwezi separately last year in Cape Town and North-West after they disappeared from Venda with more than R15m of the money they collected from thousands of investors in 1997.

The investigating officer, Superintendent Takalani Nematswerani, said Pitso's other boyfriend informed them that she has given him R180 000 so that he can keep it. Nematswerani said they also have a list of other people who were given money by Pitso, who had already separated with Kwezi, a father of her two children. In his ruling, Rapudi said he could not give Pitso R2 000 bail, considering the seriousness of her crime, while also adding that R100 000 was too much. At the time of going to press, Pitso was still behind bars.