- Jason Rohde returned to the Western Cape High Court on Monday to apply for the recusal of the judge who found him guilty of murdering his wife.
- This is part of a bid to have his bail extended pending an appeal to the Constitutional Court.
- He feels Judge Gayaat Salie-Hlophe made mistakes in the trial, and was biased against him.
Jason Rohde listened intently during his latest bail application as his lawyer argued for the recusal of Judge Gayaat Salie-Hlophe, who found him guilty of the murder of his wife, Susan.
Rohde is making a bid for an appeal to the Constitutional Court, and wants his bail extended so long.
Wearing a light blue mask and dark blue suit, the former property expert watched Salie-Hlophe closely as she listened to measured submissions on why he believes she got it wrong in finding that he murdered his wife, Susan.
One of the issues raised by his counsel Ben Prinsloo in excruciatingly polite exchanges, was that he had been hauled to court from a mental health facility when Salie-Hlophe did not accept a sick note that he was not well enough to attend trial.
This was in spite of his lawyer, the late Pete Mihalik, telling her that Rohde had, experienced a mental breakdown.
"The point you wish to make is that the trial court was not proper?" she asked.
"Yes," said Prinsloo.
Turning to extracts of the 7 000-page court record, Salie-Hlophe said the "goalposts kept shifting" regarding her efforts to find out if Rodhe could attend or not.
"At every turn I was blocked," she said.
READ | Why Jason Rohde does not want to face Judge Gayaat Salie-Hlophe again
She said she had asked his specialist to come to court to clarify whether the matter should be postponed on the basis of a sick note, but Mihalik opposed this on the basis that his client would not be present.
She said there were changes in how long was required for his treatment - whether it was seven days or six weeks. When she did receive a report two weeks later, Rohde had improved so remarkably that he was well enough to terminate his counsel at the time.
"In fact, his recovery was remarkable," said Salie-Hlophe.
"The long and short of it is, there was a conundrum that day. There was a conundrum," she said.
During the hearing, Rohde was seen writing notes and trying to get the attention of his lawyer.
Rohde was convicted of murdering his wife on 24 July, 2016 during a business conference at Spier wine estate in Stellenbosch.
He was also found guilty of obstructing justice.
At the time, the couple was in the throes of dealing with his affair with a fellow estate agent, also at the conference. Rohde had contended that Susan hanged herself in the toilet of their suite after a fraught evening.
The State successfully argued that he murdered her and staged a suicide.
'Showed prejudice'
After an application to the Supreme Court of Appeal, the SCA reduced his sentence from 20 to 15 years.
It still agreed that he had strangled his wife, but found that Salie-Hlophe had made some mistakes.
One was that he had smothered her with a pillow and another was the he had punched her with his ring-bearing hand.
His counsel has also hung part of its application for recusal on court politics involving whether Salie-Hlophe got to hand-pick the case, as alleged by the Deputy Judge President Patricia Goliath.
In Rohde's latest bail application in the Western Cape High Court, an affidavit that was seen by News24, he set out the occasions he thought Salie-Hlophe allegedly showed prejudice or bias against him, to support his application that she be recused from his latest bail bid.
These included that she suddenly allowed one of his daughters to be filmed in court, in spite of an order barring this.
One of his daughters was going to give evidence in mitigation of sentence, but when this happened, she was too frightened to give evidence.
READ | Last bid for freedom: we revisit the Jason Rohde case that shocked SA
Salie-Hlophe said it was never pointed out that she was in a "mentally unwell" state, but she did "pacify" his daughter at the time.
She said there were other 20-year-olds who also testified.
Rohde was out on bail of R200 000, and a R1 million surety lodged with the Court Registrar in December 2019.
On 7 October, 2021, after the SCA ruling, his lawyer received a notice that he had to report to jail within 48 hours of receiving it.
There is an agreement to not arrest Rohde until his bail extension application has been heard. However, he wants judge Salie-Hlophe recused first.
Monday's application continues.
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