The case against a former member of the Special Task Force (STF) within the South African Police Service (Saps), Matipandile Sotheni, was postponed on Thursday. Sotheni returned to the Brakpan Magistrate’s Court for a pre-trial hearing, after being denied bail last month. The case is connected with the murder of Marius van der Merwe, also known as “Witness D”. Sotheni faces 16 charges, including murder, conspiracy to commit murder, three counts of attempted murder, unlawful possession of a firearm, ammunition-related offences, and theft. The case was postponed to 9 September 2026 for the mapping and the tracking of Matipandile’s cell phones.