Johannesburg – A lawyer for one of the accused in the asbestos case of the free state was given six days by the Supreme Court to familiarize himself with the docket before the trial starts.
Director of the freedom of the freedom department, Mahlomola Matlakala, started this week without his lawyer in court.
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Matlakala is one of the 18 accused in the controversial multi-million Rand asbestos tuning in which the former Prime Minister, Ace Magashule and businessman Edwin Sodi were involved.
When the asbestos process started on the award of an R255 million tender on Tuesday, a deferment was expected because one of the accused, Matlakala, only instructed lawyers last week after his application for legal aid had been refused.
His lawyer argued that the case could not take place because they had to come through the docket of more than 50,000 pages.
On Wednesday, the lawyer of Matlakala, Thabani Mhlanga, arrived and tried to argue for a long delay, something that Judge Philip Loubs did not want to give.
“I don’t have a cocket for me. I don’t have a docket and even if I had one now, I don’t have enough time to prepare for this process, my Lord. I was only informed and I made my first performance on April 11,” said Mhlanga.
“Let me tell you so that there can be no misunderstanding, I will probably not postpone this issue until every date outside of it,” said Judge Loubser.
Eventually the case was postponed until next Wednesday, so that Mhlanga was effectively given for six days to prepare.
Kgomotso Modise
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