This was after nearly a day’s deliberation when the accused, who had been in jail, came to court this morning in orange prison gear and shackled, and ‘fired’ his third defence counsel, attorney Andre Kleynhans of Sedgefield.
The 24-year-old is accused of armed robbery, kidnapping, malicious damage to property and of raping a 68-year-old woman of Knysna Heights. He was also out on parole when he committed these crimes,
Presiding in the Knysna court, Judge Lee Bozalec of Cape Town consulted with the prosecution, junior advocate Gerda Marx of George and senior advocate Jan Theron of Cape Town and with the accused about moving the date of the trial. This was after the accused showed in the morning session that he was determined to hire a George attorney called D’Oliveira.
When the judge asked him how he was going to pay for this, he initially said he was not going to be charged, but later the story changed to a R50 000 deposit.
The accused then said that his sister in Baviaanskloof, who had a farm, would be willing to pay his legal fees. The court adjourned before lunch for the accused to contact his sister.
After lunch, in what came as a bit of a surprise, the judge concurred with the prosecution in court that April 20 would be a suitable date for re-convening the trial.
He spoke sternly to the accused and warned him that this would, however, be the final date and that no more excuses would be accepted.
“This gives you seven weeks … Do not think what happened today will happen again,” Judge Bozalec said.
In the individuals who did not wish to be named were disappointed that the case did not proceed.
A source who knows the family and was briefly at the court today said: “It is just awful that this man, who is guilty, gets to play around like this while the family suffer and just want this to be over. We don’t understand why he gets to have all this freedom of choice when he is guilty.”
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