Cape Town - Two teenagers accused of killing Cape Town schoolboy Glenrico Martin made their first appearance at a pre-trial conference in the Western Cape High Court on Friday.
The purpose of pre-trial conferences is to ensure no technical hitches delay proceedings when the actual trials commence in the high court.
Wilston Stoffels, 18, and Jevon Snyman, 19, appeared before Judge Robert Henney, who postponed the matter to November 8, when they will appear at a second pre-trial conference. They remain in custody.
Russell Cloete, representing Legal Aid SA, told the court that a legal aid advocate had yet to be allocated to represent Stoffels.
He said the Western Cape branch of Legal Aid SA had “numerous challenges” which had not yet been resolved.
He said several criminal cases were pending in the high court, all with multiple accused who each required legal aid representation.
He said the legal aid problems which had to be resolved did not affect Snyman, who was represented by privately-funded attorney William da Grass.
The two abandoned their bail applications before the case was transferred from the Wynberg District Court, in Cape Town, to the high court.
Martin, 18, was shot on Wednesday, May 15 while entering the Spes Bona Secondary School premises in Athlone, on the Cape Flats.
At the time, Captain Frederick van Wyk said three men Ä two of them armed Ä wearing school tracksuit tops, approached Martin. One of them shot him in the head.
Paramedics revived him and took him to the Groote Schuur Hospital where he died soon after arrival.
Snyman was arrested in Athlone the next day and Stoffels was arrested in Bonteheuwel the day after that.
Sapa