AKA murder case postponed for month
The Durban High Court has heard that the state intends to call 45 witnesses, and possibly more, in the AKA and Tebello Motsoane murder trial.
Five men are accused of involvement in killing of the rapper and his friend in Durban two years ago.
Thursday had been set for a pre-trial conference.
Legal expert Advocate Abigail Ngobene, who attended court, says proceedings became heated after the prosecution handed in Section 220 submissions.
" These are the admissions that are made by the accused persons, and those are things where they admit issues like facts to say the state should not really go as far to prove those. We admit that. But that document was disputed by some of the defense counsel to say they have not seen it before."
Ngobene says, when the matter was called back in session, more issues arose, due to outstanding statements.
One aspect had to do with witnesses, whose names were not on the list.
"It is as if the state has withheld that for some reasons that are known to them, and one of those they cited would be protection and safety of those witnesses. We don't know to what extent were they going to withhold that information, given that they're not allowed to start a trial without fully disclosing.
"Because that will then amount to trial by ambush, then the issue of dates, and I think that's what invited the comment from Judge Hendricks to say, the state must get their house in order."
The matter has been given another month-long postponement.
"The state has indicated today that issues such as CCTV footage, bank statements, tracker reports for the vehicles of the accused, the ballistic reports are available in the docket.
" There is work that was done so we are hopeful that the state can tighten those outstanding things, sort them out, exchange documents where they are required to do so by the law and then see to it that this matter is certified trial ready sooner than later."
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