Training in applying the Child Justice Act was brought into question during the trial for the murder of rightwing leader Eugene Terre'Blanche in the High Court in Ventersdorp on Monday.
Captain Jacobus Rautenbach, one of the officers at Terre'Blanche's house after the murder, was asked about the training received by police.
One of the two farmworkers accused of killing Terre'Blanche was a minor and defence attorney Norman Arendse questioned the procedures that had been followed in terms of the Child Justice Act.
Rautenbach was repeatedly asked when and where training on the requirements of the new Act took place.
“I can't tell you where and when training was received but it was,” Rautenbach said.
Chris Mahlangu and the 17-year-old boy are accused of beating and hacking the former AWB leader to death in his farmhouse in North West in April 2010.
Both have pleaded not guilty to murder, housebreaking, and robbery with aggravating circumstances.
Mahlangu claims he acted in self defence. The teenager has denied involvement in the crime.
Arendse maintained the arresting officers’ training only took place after Terre'Blanche's murder on April 3, 2010.
This meant the arresting officers could not have adhered to the regulations of the Act, he said.
Rautenbach said: “I at no stage suspected that the rights of the youth accused might have been violated.”
He said he could not answer if the minor's rights had been violated. He had not been involved in that part of the investigation because he was at the crime scene. – Sapa