An application for the judge presiding over the Jeppestown trial to recuse himself was dismissed at the Johannesburg High Court on Tuesday.
Judge Ratha Motkgoatleng said the application had no legal basis to suggest he would be biased when he had to decide on the merits of the case.
He said a judge could only recuse himself if there was a reasonable legal basis made by a reasonable person suggesting that he had been biased.
Eleven out of 13 accused in the Jeppestown murder trial filed an application on Friday for the judge’s recusal on the basis of apprehension of bias.
Motkgoatleng apologised for remarks he made last week during the trial, saying they were only intended as a joke.
”If some people found my humour appalling, I apologise,” he said.
Last week when one of the accused was sick he jokingly said: ”Who’s going to be sick next week so that I can have a doctor on standby?”
The 13 accused are in court for the deaths of 12 people, including four police officers, during a bloody shoot-out in Jeppestown, Johannesburg, after a supermarket robbery on the West Rand in June 2006.
The trial continues. — Sapa