JUDGE Sharmaine Balton has lashed the prosecuting team in the Zandile Gumade case.
Balton who is sitting in the fraud and corruption trial of the former mayor of eThekwini mayor and 21 others, lashed out at the prosecution team at the Durban High Court on Tuesday, 27 February.
Judge Balton went as far as threatening that the prosecuting team would have to pay the legal costs.
She wasn't happy after two state witnesses which they were cross-examining didn't bring complete documents.
Judge Balton told the prosecution team that they should check all the documents to see if they were complete and ready for court.
"I have been talking about the same thing over and over. We are wasting time because of incomplete documents," she said.
The state had brought witnesses who worked at the municipality's tender department. The witness said some of her duties were that she opens and closes tenders. Verified information and typed information in tender documents brought in by the contractors.
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"After verification, the instruction would be to send them to various departments," she said.
She said that on 28 December 2017, she wrote four letters of tender awards for different companies that were awarded the tenders.
She said the letter was urgently requested by accused five, Sandie Ngcobo, who was the Deputy Head of Supply Chain Management.
"My supervisor told me that this was urgently needed by Sandile Ngcobo because doing this was not part of my job description," she said.
She said in telling her to do this work, her supervisor sent her an email.
"So, on 28 December 2017, my supervisor sent me an email with BAC draft decisions. The email stated that I should make drafts concerning the letters of tender awards," she said.
When Judge asked about the attached documents, the state didn't have those attachments. The witness had to stand down and return when the attachments were found.
A witness, who is an official at the municipality and had also stood down on Monday, 26 February, as there were missing email documents was called back.
The Monitoring and Evaluation Unit official had to bring documents of an email concerning the gift registry.
But she, too, didn't bring a complete document.
Judge Balton was unhappy and lashed out at the Prosecuting team for not bringing complete documents to court.
The suspects are facing charges, including conspiracy to commit corruption, corruption, fraud, money laundering, racketeering, and contravention of the Municipal Finance Management Act and the Municipal Systems Act concerning a R300 million DSW contract.
The matter was adjourned to Wednesday, 28 February.
