Cape Town – The Western Cape High Court has dismissed the bail appeal of Christopher Carelse, who faces serious charges linked to a major cocaine seizure and illegal firearms. The ruling was delivered on 20 November 2025.
Judge ED Wille found that the magistrate’s earlier refusal to grant bail was “correctly based on a cumulative analysis of the evidence (which was not wrong).”
Court documents show that Carelse was tied to 15 bricks of pure cocaine — weighing over 15 kg and valued at about R18 million — discovered in a Cape Town storage facility.
Authorities also recovered unlicensed firearms, including fully automatic weapons, along with substantial quantities of ammunition in the same unit.
The judgment notes that Carelse made a “conscious and deliberate decision not to address the merits of the case against him … without offering a single explanation regarding the merits of the charges against him.”
Instead, he leaned heavily on his personal circumstances, including that “he has a steady managerial job (earning R76,000 per month), lives with his partner, owns property in Gauteng, and has a minor child.”
Despite this, Judge Wille ruled that Carelse “did not discharge the legal onus that rested on him in the circumstances.”
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Compiled by Lisabeal Nqamqhele
