Arnold Terblanche leaves the Gqeberha Magistrate’s Court after a previous appearance.

• Arnold Terblanche, who is accused of murdering his estranged wife, Vicki Terblanche, made his first appearance in the Eastern Cape High Court in Gqeberha on Wednesday.
• The case was postponed.
• According to the defence, the State has not yet provided it with the docket.

The case of Gqeberha businessman Arnold Terblanche, who is accused of orchestrating the murder of his estranged wife, Vicki Terblanche, hit a snag on the first day it appeared on the roll of the Eastern Cape High Court in Gqeberha on Wednesday.

Dressed in a blue suit, white shirt, and shiny brown shoes, Terblanche made his first brief appearance in that court.

His co-accused, Vicki’s boyfriend at the time of her death, Reinhardt Leach, was also in court.

Leach and his former co-accused, Dylan Cullis, abandoned their bid for bail.

Cullis was sentenced to 18 years in prison after he confessed in March this year.

Wednesday’s appearance was scheduled for the court to decide on a date for a pre-trial conference and the trial.

Terblanche’s lawyer, Peter Daubermann, told the court that the defence had yet to receive the docket from the State.

READ | Arnold Terblanche case postponed again as indictment not yet completed

Daubermann asked that the State be ordered to provide the defence with the complete docket.

Judge Louis Claassen granted the order.

The matter was postponed to 27 October. 

Earlier this year, the matter was postponed three times in the Magistrate’s Court before a date for the High Court was provided because the indictment was not ready.

Terblanche was released on R1 million bail in February this year following his arrest in November 2021.

Vicki’s body was found in a shallow grave in Greenbushes, Nelson Mandela Bay, in October 2021.

She was allegedly drugged, suffocated, and/or strangled.