Cape Town - The court on Thursday set down September 5 as the date for former South African Revenue Service (SARS) employee, Faried Van Der Schyff and his co-accused to be served with an official indictment in anticipation of their matter being transferred to the High Court.
Van der Schyff, Nafiz Modack, his brother Yaseen Modack, his mother, Ruwaida Modack, Bashier Syce, Nadia Sait, Dominique McLachlan, Kulsum Van Der Schyff and Layla Bedderson appeared in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court where they are facing charges of racketeering, money laundering, fraud, forgery and uttering and contraventions of the Value Added Tax Act.
State advocate Bronwen Hendry-Sidaki confirmed that the State was ready for trial but needed clarity regarding the financial instructions of the accused and whether their legal representation had been given instructions on the merits of the case.
Magistrate Ronel Oliver noted that the matter had been postponed ad nauseum since December last year as a result of the same submissions made by Modack’s lawyer, Advocate Dirk Uys.
He told the court the documentation given to him by the State was “impossible” to get through as it consisted of over three boxes of paper.
Uys said: “We’re not ready and it would be impossible to get ready. At the present time, my staff are organising that which had been printed into volumes… we would probably be finished at the beginning of next week; that is just to make the docket readable and understandable.
“It is not possible to conduct a trial in which documentation is of importance when the documentation which you have is only on a computer screen,” Uys said.
He asked that the matter be postponed for three months, but the magistrate said that the accused had to face the inevitable fact that the matter would be going to trial at the High Court as a further delay would be considered prejudicial, considering that the accused had the right to a speedy trial.
They will appear in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on September 5, when the State is expected to serve the indictment.