Pretoria - Joy and relief filled the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court yesterday after the case against 72 senior police officials, businessman and civilians alleged to have manipulated SAPS procurement processes was struck off the roll.
Magistrate Thandi Theledi made the ruling as the legal teams for the accused alleged the State was employing delaying tactics by requesting a lengthy postponement before the trial commences.
The legal teams, representing the 72 accused persons and companies linked to the manipulation of the SAPS procurement processes to the tune of R85 million, demanded the matter be struck off the court roll due to unreasonable delays by the State.
The defence requested the action despite State prosecutor Tilas Chabalala indicating that they were finally ready to proceed with the trial for a date to be set for sometime in August or September.
Chabalala said the only outstanding matters was for the State to apply for correction of the charge sheet, as it had over 600 pages and they were only possession of a draft charge sheet.
Chabalala said that they were also awaiting a certificate for charges of racketeering as they could only prefer the charges upon authorisation by the National Director of Public Prosecutions.
He added that the applications were still to be brought before the court to have the matter transferred to the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, or the finalisation of the charge sheet, and to deal with those accused who want to apply for a separation.
Chabalala stressed, however, that despite the State being ready to proceed with the matter, they could not rule out the possibility of further arrests being made as “investigations into criminal matters are never complete as things could come during or after the trial”.
The 15 defence teams, however, clung on Magistrate Thandi Theledi’s previous ruling that the matter would only to be postponed for further investigations for the last time.
They further argued that the State was being malicious in their request for a trial date only in September, and it appeared more like another postponement via back door for further investigations.
As it stood, the defence said their clients lives' had been adversely affected by the ongoing case, and were subjected to intense and negative media scrutiny which had since followed their arrests.
The charges stem from crimes which were allegedly conducted back in 2017, with the charges coming after National Police Commissioner General Khehla John Sitole established a special anti-corruption unit to investigate allegations of wrongdoing.
The case relates to the awarding of the tender for the marking and demarking of SAPS vehicles valued at R56m and cover quoting for other items such as handcuffs and leg irons, outsourcing of vehicles from the SAPS garage, stationer, as well as renovation of buildings valued at R29m.
In her ruling, Magistrate Theledi said that the State had not indicated during the appearance of September 29 that it still needed to obtain a certificate to add on racketeering charges.
She said this was despite the fact that the State had from that date been given six months for further investigations.
If anything, the magistrate said it appeared that the State was “shifting the goal post” because it was still refusing to take the court into its confidence by not stating whether or not investigations had been finalised.
“Be that as it may, every accused person has a right to fair trial including having it start and conclude without any unreasonable delay as court case often result in stigma and anxiety.
“I must point out that having the matter struck off the roll is a last resort but as it stands now, the State has been given more than enough time to get their house in order and are simply employing delay tactics,” she said.
It was for this reason that she said the court had decided to strike the matter off the court roll.
Related Video:
Pretoria News