Zuma son killer taxi accident inquest postoned to November

22 August 2014 - 12:48 By Sapa
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The formal inquest into whether President Jacob Zuma's son Duduzane can be held responsible for a fatal taxi accident was postponed in the Randburg Magistrate's Court on Friday.

He will return to the court in November for the inquest into the crash in which taxi passenger Phumzile Dube died after his Porsche hit the back of the taxi and the taxi overturned.

The inquest will run from November 4 to 14.

Dressed in a black suit and a tie, Zuma sat next to another man in the back of the court before proceedings began.

His previous lawyer, Pieter van der Merwe, told the court he would no longer be representing the president's son and was handing the matter over to his senior, Gary Mazaham.

Zuma missed the last scheduled proceedings on August 12.

Mazaham apologised on his behalf, claiming he had not received the message that he was meant to appear in court on the day.

The confusion was between the investigating officer and Mazaham's nephew Richard, who was supposed to have told Zuma that he had been subpoenaed to appear in court.

Mazaham told the court his nephew was "particularly negligent".

He told the court, however, that his nephew had nothing to do with the case but was a business associate of Zuma's.

Magistrate Lalita Chetty accepted the apology and asked for Zuma.

He emerged from the public gallery and made his way to Mazaham, seemingly unaware of where to sit.

At the time, metro police spokesman Chief Superintendent Wayne Minnaar said the Porsche rear-ended the taxi on the M1 south off-ramp to Grayston Drive in Sandton.

Three other people were injured in the crash.

The court heard that a second person, who was one of the injured, had since died.

Jeanette Mashaba died in May, three months after the accident.

But prosecutor Yusuf Baba told the court they would not be pursuing an inquest into her death as her death certificate stated that she had died of natural causes.

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