Africa-Press – South-Africa. Will Nafiz Modack finally have found a lawyer?
This is the answer a judge will be waiting for when he appears with his co-accused for further trial preparation on Friday.
At their last appearance at the Western Cape High Court, Judge Nathan Erasmus held a record three-hour session as he expressed his displeasure with the tenuous state of some of the accused’s legal representation.
Some of the lawyers said they were still waiting for financial instructions, which is a polite way of saying they are waiting for a guarantee that they will be paid for the whole trial.
One withdrew, another was under-briefed, and another sent a message through his client to say they were trying to keep costs down by not flying to Cape Town for every appearance.
Modack also needed time to get a printout of the indictment from his old lawyers, saying he had nowhere to read a hard drive in prison while awaiting trial.
The judge pointed out that if he had already paid the R60 000 for the printouts, he was entitled to get them from his previous counsel.
Also hanging over his head is a VAT fraud case in which his mother and brother are co-accused.
Modack is also facing charges of corrupting the former commander of the Cape Town Central police station in a case in the Regional Court on a different date.
The purpose of Friday’s pre-trial conference is to get everything ready for a smooth trial.
In the VAT fraud case, the accused are Modack, tax practitioner Faried van der Schyff, Modack’s mom, Ruwaida, and brother, Yaseen, Bashier Syce, Nadia Sait, Dominique McLachlan, Kulsum van der Schyff, and Layla Bedderson.
In the racketeering case, there are more than 3 000 charges against Modack, Zane Kilian, Ziyaad Poole, Moegamad Toufeek Brown, Riyaat Gesant, Fagmeed Kelly, Mario Petersen, Jacques Cronje, Petrus Visser, Janick Adonis, Amaal Jantjies, Ashley Tabisher, Modack’s brother, Yaseen, Mogamat Muhakadam, and Ricardo Morgan.
That case involves the murders of Anti-Gang Unit detective Charl Kinnear, a former Hawks officer’s father, Nicolaas Heerschap, tow-truck driver Richard Joseph and Cubana Green Point bouncer Pitshou Falanga.
The attempted murder of lawyer William Booth also features.
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