A Cape Town magistrate on Monday rejected a bid by a co-accused of former Fidentia boss J Arthur Brown to have his case struck from the roll.
The former chief executive of the Transport, Education and Training Authority (Teta), Piet Bothma, opposed a prosecution request for a further postponement.
Speaking from the dock, he said a previous postponement had been to allow the national director of public prosecutions to decide on the state’s application for ”centralisation” — to run the trial in Cape Town rather than in Gauteng, where Bothma lives.
Bothma said his attorney had not been able to make representations to the national director on centralisation because prosecutors had refused to hand over a copy of what they were going to submit.
He asked that the case be struck from the roll, and said he would voluntarily hand himself over to the Scorpions if the charges were reinstated, as he had done the first time he was arrested.
Prosecutor Bruce Morrison said, however, that the centralisation application was a privileged communication between the prosecutors and their head office.
The reasons for the application had, however, been repeatedly discussed with Bothma’s lawyer, he said.
The balance of convenience leaned towards a trial in Cape Town, as most of the witnesses were there, and Brown himself was in custody in the city.
If Bothma had not made representations by next Friday, the prosecution would press ahead with the application.
Magistrate Vusi Mhlanga rejected Bothma’s objections, and postponed the case to November 5.
However, Brown will be back in court on Thursday for a bail application.
Brown also made a brief appearance on Monday in the Cape Town Regional Court, where he faces charges related to Fundi and Infinity.
The court was supposed to hear a report from Brown’s psychiatrist following a claim by his legal team that they could not take proper instructions because of his mental state.
Brown’s advocate, Rashaad Khan, told magistrate Wilma van der Merwe that the psychiatrist was, however, not available.
Van der Merwe postponed the case to October 16, again for the psychiatrist’s report.
Brown goes on trial in the regional court on November 10.
He is in custody at Pollsmoor prison. Bothma is on bail. — Sapa