THE trial of alleged rhino poaching kingpin Joseph "Big Joe" Nyalunga and his three co-accused has been postponed to 25 September.
The postponement comes after defence lawyer Hendrick Potgieter requested to read through the application for authorisation for the undercover operation which was conducted under section 252A.
Potgieter told the Mbombela High Court on Wednesday, 13 March, that since the documents were given to him on Wednesday morning, he would need more time to go through them.
"The document has a lot of factual details. Receiving it just this morning is not fair. I also have to afford myself an opportunity to read through and have an opportunity for consulting and get instructions from the accused. I need more than a day to go through the documents and engage with the accused,” he said.
Potgieter said he'll proceed with cross-examination after going through the documents.
On Tuesday, 12 March, two witnesses who were part of the undercover operation testified.
The first witness, a former poacher and a former member of the Zimbabwean military told the court that they would use marked police vans to enter the park.
He confirmed to the court that he worked with all the accused on different occasions.
ALSO READ: Ex-poacher spills the beans!
Meanwhile, another witness, an intelligence police Captain, Moses Sithole, told the court that the syndicate worked in a particular fashion and would not accept anyone outside to work with them because they had rules.
Sithole said a normal police officer would not be successful in investigating the rhino poaching syndicate.
He said it was agreed that an agent be placed to participate in the act to obtain evidence.
Nyalunga, together with his co-accused Claude Lubisi, Aretha Mhlanga, and Rachel Qwebana, are facing over forty charges related to rhino poaching and racketeering.
The alleged crimes were committed between 2016 and 2019.
Judge Lindelwa Vukeya stressed that she was worried that there were documents that needed to be exchanged.
"I've noticed that there are documents that need to be exchanged as we proceed, and those documents were meant to be exchanged a long time ago.
“I'm going to appeal to the state and defence to have a meeting of minds of what is needed to improve the speed of trial and what is not needed.
"I don't know if there was something wrong with the process of disclosure. I noticed that a day doesn’t go by when a certain document is still in a file somewhere in Pretoria or Johannesburg. That's not so ideal," she said.
Judge Vukeya said she didn't want to prejudice both parties.
"The postponement doesn't prejudice anyone except that it drags the trial, affecting the speed of the trial.”
https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaHB5ez7tkj0FuHQkQ0s
