Suspended Midrand magistrate Johannes Kgomo's advocate has accused the police of improperly conducting the sting operation that resulted in Kgomo's arrest.
“I put it to you that the reason you did not identify the target as Mr Kgomo is because the police knew from the beginning that they would be involved in an improper application against Mr Kgomo,” Advocate Rathaga Ramawele said on Wednesday.
On the witness stand was former Warrant Officer Pieter Mars, who testified in the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court about how the South African Police Service (SAPS) obtained the authority for the sting operation to arrest Kgomo.
Ramawele took issue with the fact that Kgomo was not named in the application for permission to conduct the operation. Instead, it refers to "a Midrand magistrate" and Kgomo's name only appears in the complainant's statement which was attached to the form.
Kgomo is charged with two counts of corruption for allegedly soliciting a R500,000 bribe from Paul Mthabela to prevent Mthabela from being extradited to Botswana.
Mars responded that positive identification of the “target” would happen after his arrest.
The court also heard testimony from two officials from the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Advocate Khulekani Mathenjwa, who received the application form from the police, and Advocate Zaais van Zyl, who authorised the sting operation.
Mathenjwa and Van Zyl reiterated that it did not matter that Kgomo's name did not appear on the application form.
The trial continues.
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