CAPE TIMES
Reporter – Caryn Dolley
THERE is no evidence linking Juan Duval Uys, suspected of posing as a male prostitute who, writing in a blog, claimed he had sex with a number of prominent South Africans, to crimen inuria and theft charges, his attorney says, Looking confident and wearing a brown pin-striped shirt and tan trousers, Uys, 39, appeared in the Cape town Magistrate’s Court yesterday on the two charges. More complaints are being investigated against him and, at his first court appearance in Cape Town on July 31, the prosecution and defence said additional charges could be brought. The magistrate, Phindiwe Norman, noted yesterday that “the majority of complainants are members of parliament”. Uys’s attorney, Reaz Khan, told Norman he had read through the docket and seen nothing in it that linked Uys to the 2004 theft charge or the crimen injuria complaint filed this year by Independent Democrats member Simon Grindrod, the Cape Town mayoral committee member for economic development. Grindrod’s complaint related to a blog in which the writer, ostensibly a male sex worker called Skye, claimed to have had sex with the councillor. Grindrod alleges Uys is Sky. “All the evidence is just based on suspicions by the complainants and ….media reports,” Khan said. “The complainants’ statements do not mention my client at all as the person who committed the offences.” Khan said that at Uys’s first court appearance in Cape Town, the prosecutor had reported that the investigation was complete. He said he had since heard from senior prosecutor Fiona Cloete that the investigation was continuing. “Based on this and the fact there is no evidence against my client, I ask that charges be provisionally withdrawn.” The State suggested that the case be forwarded to the Directorate of Public Prosecutions for it to decide the next step. “Why was this not suggested at (Uys’s) first appearance?” she said. “Because the majority of complainants are members of parliament, the DPP should order what happens in this matter.” The case was postponed to September 21 and Uys was released on warning. Before his appearance, a talkative and cheerful Uys said he was confident his case would have a positive outcome. “There aren’t facts in the docket linking me to the charges ….In turn I’ve made two complaints (to the police) against Simon Grindrod.” Molebo Khosana, a Communications Officer at the police station in Kroonstad, the Free State town where Uys was arrested, said police were investigating a complaint of intimidation filed by Uys against Grindrod. Uys said he had also filed a complaint of crimen injuria at the Cape Town police station, but spokesperson Randall Stoffels said he could not divulge details of a complaint by an individual. After months of having denied it, Uys told the Cape Times he had been behind the crimexposouthafrica.net website that urged tourists not to visit the country until the government acted to curb crime. “No one was doing enough to tell tourists what was really happening. I launced a vicioius campaign and it’s thanks to me people got to know what was happening. In the first few days there were more than 100000 visitors on the site. People loved it.”