The State prosecution this week was cautioned by the presiding judge over presentation of evidence in the fraud trial of former Durban mayor Zandile Gumede.
Durban High Court Judge Sharmaine Balton expressed her concern over a lack of original documents that were being presented.
However, the State revealed that many of the original documents had been destroyed during the floods, News 24 reported.
Balton said there were over 300,000 documents and that there must be some sort of explanation as to where the originals were.
“The best proof is original documents. This point has been raised many times before. There must be an explanation for where the original is,” Balton is quoted as saying.
State Prosecutor Ashika Lucken said that some originals don’t exist and some were destroyed in the floods.
There are 22 accused in the trial.
They face charges that include conspiracy to commit corruption, corruption, fraud, money laundering, racketeering, contravention of the Municipal Finance Management Act, and contravention of the Municipal Systems Act worth more than R300 million relating to a Durban Solid Waste (DSW) tender.
A former senior DSW official is currently on the witness stand.
His identity is being withheld for security reasons.
The witness told the court that in November 2017 they had asked for an extension of the contracts of the contractors who were collecting waste around the City, the Daily News reported.
He said this was because his subordinates had not processed about 1,000 service providers’ applications for the solid waste contracts.
The witness said if they were not granted this extension, the City would have been left dirty.
He said the extension was approved in December 2017, and more than R53 million was set aside for this.
Gumede is out on R50,000 bail.
IOL News