Johannesburg - A high court judge has lashed out at murder accused Patrick Wisani’s new legal representative after his trial was postponed yet again because his attorney was absent.
The retrial of the former ANC Youth League leader was due to start yesterday after the original trial was scrapped in August when Judge Andre Louw recused himself.
The new advocate, Zimisele Masuku, asked the court sitting in Randburg to postpone the hearing until the end of the month to give him a chance to peruse the documents. “I am not ready to proceed, the reason being I only received the trial yesterday at around 7pm,” said Masuku.
He added that he was waiting for prosecutor Faghre Mohamed to hand over documents and requested that the case be postponed to October 31.
Mohamed opposed Ma-suku’s request.
“The instructing attorney (Mpho Selepe) said on record that we’d be able to continue (on Monday),” he said.
Mohamed said he had emailed the outstanding document - an additional witness statement - to Selepe last week.
Judge Mohamed Ismail reacted angrily to the statement.
“Attorneys must be here with counsel, particularly when the attorney has given an undertaking that it will continue.
“The attorney is the one to instruct you and now he is not here. I would have liked to have questioned him,” he said.
Judge Ismail postponed the matter to day and ordered Masuku to ensure that Selepe was present.
“I’m standing this matter down until tomorrow morning. I want the attorney to be here to explain to this court what the situation is. I can’t expect you to explain to the court.”
Wisani is accused of sjambokking his girlfriend Nosipho Mandleleni to death in September last year.
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The Star