PETER DICKSON, East London | Tuesday 1.30pm.
DISGRACED Border and South African cricketer Makhaya Ntini has discharged his legal team ahead of his October appeal in the Grahamstown High Court against a six-year prison sentence for rape.
Ntini, who faces termination of his R19000 a month contract with the United Cricket Board if the appeal fails, was convicted in the East London Regional Court in April of raping a 22-year-old woman in a toilet at the Border cricket grounds.
Grahamstown attorney Bonisile Sandi, who will represent Ntini in the appeal, said he was not at liberty to discuss why Ntini had discharged trial attorney Chris Kay of East London and advocate Ben Ford.
The appeal, initially scheduled for Tuesday, has now been set down for October 20. This is to give Sandi, understood to have briefed senior counsel from Cape Town to argue the appeal, time to study the court record.
UCB managing director Ali Bacher, under fire for the board’s support of Ntini during and after the trial, says the pace bowler will continue receiving his salary until the appeal is heard.
The UCB, because “it is the right thing to do and we will do it”, then had a “responsibility” to “go public” on its position, says Bacher.