Africa-Press – South-Africa. The trial of businessman Rameez Patel, who stands accused of murdering his wife, almost turned into a farce in the Polokwane High Court in Limpopo on Tuesday – much to the frustration of Judge Joseph Raulinga.
First, it was the failure of a generator to kick in when load shedding hit, forcing the lengthy delay in the start of the trial that has been running for seven years.
Then, proceedings were further delayed when the stenographer could not be found.
Raulinga angrily said: “This court has a bad omen. First it was load shedding. I don’t know why somebody didn’t check the generator. Then the stenographer decided to disappear.
“I’m disappointed myself, like many other people, on why the matter is not concluding by now.”
Raulinga then turned to the stenographer so she could explain her “disappearance”. She said she had been helping someone in the building to make photocopies.
‘Who told you to come and testify?’ – defence witness in Rameez Patel trial goes silent in court
However, after a short lunch break, a new stenographer was brought in much to Raulinga’s indignation.
“The attitude of work ethic is just not on. I think we need to change the way we work,” he said.
Patel is standing trial for the murder of his wife, Fatima, at their marital home in the Polokwane suburb of Nirvana in 2015.
The State maintains that Patel killed his wife after a heated argument over his extramarital affair.
The defence on Tuesday called to the stand retired police major-general Harold Engelbrecht, to testify about “the evidence that is there, but is not in the docket”.
Engelbrecht went on to work as a private investigator after his retirement.
Defence lawyer advocate Meshack Thipe told the court that the State’s evidence of a video clip about a residential complex depicting Patel’s movements on the day of the murder didn’t show the whole picture.
The defence wanted to show that the State only submitted evidence from the video clip “up to a certain point whilst there were still much more”.
State and defence lock horns over new video evidence in alleged wife killer’s trial
“We are not introducing new evidence. There are features which are at the heart of our defence,” Thipe said.
The judge, however, pointed out his general concern that video clips could be manipulated. He also voiced his displeasure that Patel, as the accused, would be the one operating a laptop from which the video clip was being played from.
After legal arguments, the witness was then led by Thipe to explain the contents of the video clip.
The defence wanted the witness to corroborate parts of Patel’s evidence-in-chief that his wife may have been killed by intruders.
The trial continues.
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