Pretoria - The trial of four former Soweto special branch members accused of killing anti-apartheid activist Nokuthula Simelane may take some time before it is heard in the high court in Pretoria, as three of them want the police department to pay their legal fees.
The four - Msebenzi Radebe, Willem Coetzee, Anton Pretorius, and Frederik Mong - were earlier released on R5 000 bail each and their case was referred to the high court for trial.
All four face charges of murder, and Radebe an additional charge of abduction.
The trial was set down to be heard over three months, but their lawyers told the court on Monday that they were not ready to proceed.
Advocate Johan Gaum, representing three of the men, said his clients’ application for the police to pay their legal fees was still pending. It was earlier refused by the SAPS top structure, but Gaum said they would ask the police to reconsider the matter.
If the SAPS persisted in refusing to pay the three’s legal fees, he will launch an application for the court to review and set aside this refusal, he said.
There would also be an application on September 20 on behalf of some of the accused for the prosecution to make certain parts of the State’s docket available to them.
At a previous hearing the prosecution refused to make the information available. Now the accused will launch a formal court application in this regard. It is not clear which information they are seeking.
Arguing that this is an old matter and both the witnesses and accused are of advanced age, the prosecution asked that the case not be unnecessarily delayed.
The case was postponed to September 20 when the formal application regarding the release of portions of the docket will be heard. This is a provisional date; it is doubtful that the trial will then get under way.
Gaum told the Pretoria News that it was important that his clients secured payment of their legal fees by the SAPS. The case is set down for more than three months and their legal fees will run into millions. They cannot afford this and do not qualify for legal aid, he said.
Simelane, an Umkhonto we Sizwe operative, was abducted and subsequently disappeared 33 years ago.
It is claimed the then 23-year-old was brutally tortured and killed.
Her family had been waiting for answers for more than three decades.
During the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), it emerged Simelane was abducted in 1983 in the parking lot of the Carlton Centre by Soweto security branch officers.
National Director of Public Prosecutions Shaun Abrahams decided in January to prosecute the four accused for her murder based on evidence gathered by the NPA’s priority crimes litigation unit following the TRC hearings.
Pretoria News