The screening of the infamous Reitz four video during court proceedings in Bloemfontein yesterday evoked renewed disgust at the university students who filmed it.

The four former University of Free State students - Schalk van der Merwe, Johnny Roberts, RC Malherbe and Danie Grobler - pleaded guilty to, and were convicted of, charges of crimen injuria.

They were accused of duping cleaning staff at their residence to eat food which had been urinated on as part of a "Fear Factor" challenge, which was filmed as part of the residence's initiation process.

Bloemfontein magistrate Mziwonke Hinxa postponed the case to this afternoon for both the prosecution and the defence's pre-sentence arguments.

Before the trial began, the four shared jokes among themselves in the dock.

But their moods rapidly changed once the court began playing the humiliating video an hour into proceedings.

Their top defence lawyer - advocate Kemp J Kemp, who represented President Jacob Zuma in his rape trial - told the court that while the four pleaded guilty to crimen injuria charges, there were allegations made in the charge sheet that would be set aside.

This included an allegation that one of the men urinated in a drink mixture later given to the five workers - Emma Koko, Nkgapeng Adams, Mankoe Phororo, David Molete and Sebuseng Ntlatseng - to drink in September 2007.

"It would appear to people viewing the video that one of the accused urinated in the drinks mixture. The state has accepted that it cannot prove one of the accused urinated in the dish. What in fact happened is that they took an Energade bottle and filled it with Oros, which appeared like urine because of its orange colour, and one can even hear the bottle pop when it was open," Kemp told the court.

State attorney advocate Johan Kruger, who accepted the guilty plea, insisted the video be shown.

He argued that though the victims agreed to be filmed, they were not aware the four had filmed the urination, and were humiliated when they later saw the scene.

Bloemfontein resident Florence Moyo said she was "disgusted" by the way the men behaved and said she had lost hope they would get a harsh sentence.