The case against Ekurhuleni metro police chief Robert McBride, relating to drunken-driving charges, started briefly in the Pretoria Regional Court on Monday before being stood down again.
State prosecutors told magistrate Peet Johnson that they were ready to proceed but that McBride’s defence team wanted to bring an application.
McBride’s counsel, Guidon Penzhorn, SC, told the court he wanted to bring an application for disclosure of statements. He did not provide more detail.
Johnson said the application was not in the papers provided to the magistrate and so the court stood down for the clerk of the court to establish where the application was.
McBride previously pleaded not guilty to charges of defeating the ends of justice, fraud and driving under the influence of alcohol relating to a car accident in Centurion.
McBride is also at the centre of 18 police investigations resulting from the arrest of alleged cash-in-transit heist kingpin Marco Singh in December 2006, the Mail & Guardian reported on Friday.
The M&G has established that McBride is under investigation by the South African Police Service (SAPS) for allegedly torturing Singh, using Singh’s luxury BMW X5 vehicle after its owner had been arrested, altering official police registers about the incident and tampering with firearms.
The SAPS is also investigating allegations that McBride, or people instructed by him, smuggled weapons across the Oshoek border post to Swaziland.
McBride last week denied all the allegations against him. “Yes, there was a time during the armed struggle when I was involved in smuggling arms, but it’s bullshit that I am involved in it now,” he told the M&G.
The charges McBride faces with regard to Singh are the same faced by three Ekurhuleni metro police officers who are witnesses against the police chief in his drunken-driving case.