The defence team was not happy with the particulars furnished by the State as per their agreement in November last year.
Durban - The stage is set for the Pietermaritzburg High Court to finally start hearing oral evidence in the Zandile Gumede corruption trial after Judge Ploos Van Hamstel cleared some of the last remaining legal hurdles on Tuesday morning.
UPDATE: The Zandile Gumede corruption trial is over. It now moves to the Pietermaritzburg High Court for oral evidence on 18 July 2022. The issue of further particulars by Gumede and Sandile Ngcobo will be dealt with along the way and if there is a dispute, court to be notified.
When the matter returned to court, it emerged that Gumede and one of her co-accused Sandile Ngcobo, a former supply chain employee in the eThekwini municipality, wanted the state to furnish them with further particulars so that they could prepare comprehensive defence strategies.
Their requests were made hours before the pre-trial got underway and it appeared that they were not happy with the particulars furnished by the State as per their agreement in November last year.
Gumede and her co-accused are facing corruption charges relating to an irregular R320 million municipal waste tender awarded in 2017. At the time, Gumede, whom the state described as a key figure in the case, was the mayor of the municipality.
The other prominent accused in this case is Sipho Nzuza, the former city manager, as too is senior employee Robert Abbu, whom the State alleges had a post created for him to enable the looting of state funds. Another notable figure is senior ANC member in the eThekwini region, Mondli Mthembu.
After brief arguments on Tuesday between the State prosecutor, Advocate Viramen, and the defence lawyers on what constituted reasonable time for that, the judge said that should be done early so that the preliminary date of July is not affected.
However, the judge said if the defence was not happy with the process, they could file an application to compel the State to hand over the required particulars and that could force the court to intervene and deal with the matter.
Initially, the State wanted another pre-trial conference to be set for 12 May but that was eventually abandoned when it decided that the matter could be addressed without another court appearance.
After the court adjourned, Njabulo Mchunu, the interim spokesperson for the supporters of Gumede, lambasted the state for the delay, saying it was meant to cast aspersions on Gumede and cripple her political fortunes in the eThekwini region where she wants to return as regional chairperson.
BREAKING NEWS: Another spanner in the works in the Zandile Gumede corruption trial as it has now been revealed in court that the State this morning received another request for further particulars from former eThekwini municipality employee, Sandile Ngcobo. @IOL @IOLPolitics
Mchunu said despite that, when the regional conference convenes in two weeks time, they will field Gumede to take on Thabani Nyawose who is also gunning to chair the once powerful ANC region.
Political Bureau