In what a Cape Argus report calls a scathing indictment of the eight accused men in the ‘Black Axe’ online romance scam case, Western Cape High Court Judge Daniel Thulare has said the fact that SA advertises itself as being open for business and alive with possibilities is not an invitation to criminally minded foreign nationals to come and take advantage of the people.

Dismissing an appeal against the decision of a magistrate who denied bail to the eight, Daniel Thulare said the country’s friendly and generous reception of its visitors and its lack of restriction, frankness and accessibility seemed to have been abused.

Thulare said the men’s immigration into SA was not an enhancement of a necessary cultural exchange to contribute to the development of the SA economy and that the judiciary was sending out a clear message that ‘SA is not a nobody’s country and has not been abandoned by its citizens.’

The eight appellants are alleged to have defrauded several women out of an estimated R100m by forming romantic relationships with them under different aliases since 2011.

The case against the eight is that they are members of an international organised crime group, Black Axe.

Thulare said the eight men had all exhibited dishonesty and the absence of strong moral principles and had ‘contributed to the disunity, division and destruction in the belief that people of African descent, in particular, have common interests and should be unified’.

He said the state had established the likelihood that the appellants, if released on bail, will attempt to evade their trial as well as the likelihood that they would attempt to influence or intimidate witnesses, conceal or destroy evidence.

Full Cape Argus report

Judgment