THERE’S been another delay in the trial of former eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede and 21 others, set to begin on Monday, 17 July.
The trial was supposed to begin at the Durban High Court and run until 3 August. But it was postponed for another pretrial.
Initially, the attorney of accused Cynthia Nzuza was not in court. The matter then stood down and waited for the attorney’s arrival.
When the attorney arrived, court proceedings began but some lawyers revealed they would be representing clients only for the day because of a lack of fees to proceed for the entire matter.
Another issue raised was that accused 13 was not in court. A medical certificate proved the accused was in hospital.
The matter was therefore postponed for pretrial for the fees matter to be ironed out and for accused 13 to present herself in court.
The pretrial will be on Wednesday, 27 July. Only the attorneys will be in court.
Meanwhile, the state said it has been ready for trial since February.
Provincial National Prosecuting Authority spokeswoman Natasha Kara said the state was ready to proceed.
“But today we found out some of the representatives didn’t have fees. Given that we had to adjourn the matter to next week, hopefully by then the various attorneys would have ironed out the issues regarding funds and then we will be ready to proceed.”
Outside court, Gumede’s supporters were singing revolutionary songs.
Supporter Thabisile Mkhize (54) from Inanda said she was tired of the delays in the matter.
“This case is politically motivated. We are here to support Mama Gumede because we know she is innocent. What they are accusing her of is something she never did.”
The accused are eThekwini municipal officials (current and past), ward councillors, business people and their companies.
The state claims the officials, including the city manager and former mayor, participated in the supply chain management processes in a Durban Solid Waste tender for the benefit of identified service providers for over R300 million in 2017.
The officials allegedly profited from the deviation, and face charges of conspiracy to commit corruption, corruption, fraud, money laundering, and contravention of the Municipal Finance Management Act.
