Former National Intelligence Agency director general Billy Masetlha and his two co-accused, software specialist Muziwendoda Kunene and IT specialist Funokwakhe Madlala, had their fraud case postponed in the Pretoria Commercial Crimes Court on Tuesday.
The case was postponed to October 1 for trial and plea.
The charges relate to alleged hoax emails that implicated senior African National Congress (ANC) members in a conspiracy against ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma.
Kunene and Madlala were ready to proceed but Masetlha’s defence attorney, Neil Tuchten, put forward an application to obtain various documents, which included a report from the task team that investigated the matter.
The documents are alleged to be in the possession of ANC general secretary Kgalema Motlanthe, who is one of the witnesses.
The application was granted as Masetlha’s defence said they could not proceed without the documents.
Earlier in the day, the state disclosed separate, though related, documents to Masetlha’s defence under conditions that the documents be disclosed in camera as they were top secret.
Masetlha wanted information from Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils to be made available to him so he could prepare his defence. Kasrils had only given the state the top secret report.
Masetlha’s defence argued that parts of the document should be made available.
As this was heard in camera, it was unclear which parts of the document the defence wanted available.
Bail for the three men was extended. — Sapa