The prosecutor in the case against Mpumalanga taxi boss Joe “Ferrari” Sibanyoni was on his way to court when he suddenly made a U-turn due to “threats”.Mkhuseli Ntaba was found in contempt of court on Monday after he failed to appear before court for a bail hearing. The magistrate, Tuletu Tonjeni, also said she would authorise a warrant of arrest against him.A source said Ntaba was en route to Kwaggafontein magistrate’s court for the continuation of the cases of Sibanyoni, Bafana Sindane, Mvimbi Masilela and Philemon Msiza, who are charged with extortion and money laundering.“He reported the threats to the office of Mpumalanga director of public prosecutions, and he made his way back. A replacement [prosecutor] was found, but while the replacement was on the way, he was called and told to return as the matter had been struck off the roll,” said Sowetan sources.Before she found Ntaba in contempt, Tonjeni told the court she was informed just before 9am that Ntaba informed the control prosecutor that he was in transit and did not give an approximate time of arrival.On Tuesday, during an interview on the YouTube site “Graft under watch” season one, NPA head Andy Mothibi told Thulasizwe Simelane that among other things, the prosecutor felt unsafe.“I said it’s important that we gather credible information. We have a division here [Pretoria] that is called the office of ethics and accountability; it investigates internally matters of this nature. They are on instruction to investigate this speedily, and I need a report from them that will then inform us,” he said.Sibanyoni and his co-accused are accused of extorting more than R2.2m from a businessperson from 2022 to 2025, until the complainant registered a case with SAPS.The accused commenced with their bail application last week Friday, and Tonjeni issued an order that the bail application should continue on Monday. However, Shaun Abrahams SC, representing Sibanyoni, then applied for the matter to be struck off the roll and for Ntaba to be found in contempt of court.Magistrate Tonjeni handed down the judgement using section 342A, subsection 3c of the Criminal Procedure Act, which states that the presiding officer can remove the matter from the court roll if there is an unreasonable delay.The NPA has announced that it will be re-enrolling the matter.Sowetan