Durban — The State has been warned to get moving on acquiring a suitable venue and equipment before it makes its intended application to have certain witnesses testify virtually in the R320 million tender fraud and corruption trial against former eThekwini mayor and her co-accused.
Judge Sharmaine Balton warned in the Durban High Court on Monday that the application would not be considered if such arrangements were not made beforehand.
She said this after State prosecutor Hazel Siraramen indicated at the end of the day that the State anticipated making such an application because some of the witnesses were reluctant to testify in court.
“We are trying to sort out a facility and equipment as the high court does not have these.”
Zandile Gumede, 17 others and four companies who were the main contractors in the Durban Solid Waste (DSW) tender in question, face more than 2 000 charges, including conspiracy to commit corruption, corruption, fraud, money laundering, racketeering, contravention of the Municipal Finance Management Act and contravention of the Municipal Systems Act.
Among the accused are Mondli Mthembu (an executive councillor), Sipho Nzuza (former city manager), Robert Abbu, deputy head at DSW, former deputy head of Supply Chain Management Sandile Ngcobo and Nzuza’s wife, Bagcinile.
In court when Siraramen pointed out that one of the regional courts had such facilities, Judge Balton raised concerns about space to accommodate the large defence team.
“My concern is how will we do it... there’s a lot of logistics to sort out. The recording of the evidence that will be given is another aspect I am concerned about. You need to consult and consider this properly in making the application. Who will be there with the witness? Someone from the defence will need to be there to ensure the witness is not being fed evidence or reading from documents,” said the judge.
She emphasised that there were three weeks left in the session of the trial and the application should be made within this session.
“It’s an application that won’t be open to the public,” she said.
The matter was adjourned to Tuesday (today) after the court heard the testimony of a senior employee who worked in the contracts and materials unit at Water and Sanitation in control of procurement in 2017.
The witness gave evidence on how she and her employees handled the 484 collections of refuse in township tender bids.
The State requested the adjournment because it planned to hand the defence admissions in relation to further witnesses and if these admissions were accepted by the defence there would be no need to call these witnesses.
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