Africa-Press – South-Africa. A Western Cape High Court judge sent for the supervisor of a Legal Aid defence lawyer in the case of five men accused of murdering Cape Town lawyer David Mbazwana to find out why she was double booked.
“Why wasn’t this raised before in chambers or in pre-trial?” an annoyed Judge Hayley Slingers asked on Monday morning when the clash was brought to her attention.
The defence lawyer in question, advocate Futi Kunju, had asked the judge in another matter for leave to attend those proceedings a little late so that she could deal with the diary clash that affected the Mbazwana matter.
“We are all now, including this court, in a very difficult position,” said Slingers.
Sinethemba Makeleni, Anga Anganda Mabenjane, Lonwabo Cosa, Siyanda Ndzendze and Brian Balangile were supposed to start their trial on Monday, with some in custody since not long after Mbazwana was shot dead in Khayelitsha in 2019.
Slingers pointed out the resources were set aside for the case, and a date was agreed to long ago, to a backdrop of an existing case backlog in general in the High Court.
“We also need a definite indication on whether you are in this trial or not,” Slingers added.
“It has been set down for four weeks. This is the first time you are raising the possibility that you might not be in this trial,” she continued.
Slingers asked to see all of the lawyers and the prosecutor in chambers at 13:10, and instructed Kunju to make sure her supervisor was present.
The matter was postponed to 22 May, and the accused grumbled about even more delays.
On Friday, Judge Nathan Erasmus took on some lawyers working on Nafiz Modack’s trial for apparent deviations from court etiquette. In that case, it was for the non-appearance of some of the counsel without an apology tendered beforehand.
For More News And Analysis About South-Africa Follow Africa-Press
