Actress-turned-television producer Sonia Mbele missed her court appearance at the Johannesburg magistrate’s court once again on Thursday morning.
Mbele submitted a medical certificate stating that she would not make it to court due to a medical procedure. However, Sonia Mbele’s business partners Yolisa Gqunta and Rebone Sesing were in court to face charges of contravening the Tax Administration Act.
This is the second time the media personality missed her court appearance. Last week National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Phindi Mjonondwane said a warrant of arrest was applied but held until Thursday after the television producer missed her appearance.
Mjonondwane told reporters outside court on Thursday that the warrant of arrest against the media personality will be upheld until the next court appearance.
The case was postponed to October 20 for all accused to be present in court.
Mjonondwane said the court has granted the last opportunity to Sonia Mbele to attend the proceedings in that it has marked the postponement as final.
“We also raised concerns as the prosecution because we cannot have undue delays and we have raised our concerns to court and they then marked the postponement as final. We are hoping that on the 20th she will be in court so that the matter can proceed,” added Mjonondwane.
The trio are directors of Real Housewives of South Africa (Pty) LTD.
The NPA has not divulged the amounts owed by the trio, only stating that they are facing 42 counts of not filing company income tax returns from 2019.
“The Real Housewives of South Africa are facing 42 counts of not filling company income tax from 2019 to 2022, not filing their Value Added Tax (VAT) returns from 2020 to 2022 and also not filing their Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) from 2020 until 2022,” the NPA said.
The Blood and Water actress released a media statement last week denying any wrongdoing, stating that she was a victim of misconduct by her business partners.
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