Lindo Cele murder accused bail hearing postponed

The bail application of the man accused of murdering LGBTIQ musician Lindo Cele in a suspected hate crime has been postponed to later this month.

Mvuyisi Noguda appeared in the Umlazi Magistrate’s Court on Monday. The hearing was also attended by Lindo’s family, friends, political parties and LGBTIQ rights activists.

Campaigners danced and sang outside the court demanding justice for Lindo and calling for the authorities to refuse to grant the suspect bail.

Noguda, sporting bandages on his hand for cuts suffered during his alleged attack, appeared unfazed by Lindo’s supporters or the severity of his alleged crime.

According to reports, the bail application was postponed so that investigators can verify Noguda’s residential address and identify someone that could take him in if he is granted bail.

There are concerns that if he is released he could intimidate potential witnesses. Lindo’s aunt and family spokesperson, Nombuso Cele told EWN: “This means in South Africa, in as much as we have constitutional rights, the criminals have more rights than the victims.”

Noguda is accused of stabbing the young artist 21 times with a butcher’s knife on 6 February in a shop in uMlazi, outside of Durban.

The attack was so ferocious that, despite Lindo’s desperate pleas for mercy, the knife was left embedded in his eye socket. It’s been claimed by his family that Noguda murdered him because of his sexuality.

Lindo, who was a talented performance art student at the AFDA arts school in Durban, was buried on Sunday.

Lindo’s killing was the third LGBTIQ murder in the last two months.

In December, 25-year-old Portia Simphiwe Mtshweni, a lesbian woman, was murdered and mutilated in Tweefontein, Mpumalanga; and in January, the decomposing body of 28-year-old transgender activist Nare Mphela was found in a rented room near Mokopane. In both of these cases, no arrests have yet been made.

Noguda remains behind bars pending the bail hearing which is set to resume on the 25th of February.

Two days after we’ve laid our friend @lindofuckingsea (right) we find out that his murderer Mvuyisi Noguda (Left) who stabbed him 21 times and left a knife in his eye is being considered bail and the court is looking for a safe house 4 him. Y?#justice4lindo pic.twitter.com/qP1mrDGZuO

— #justice4lindo (@zeeh_zungu) February 17, 2020