Defence vehemently opposes more postponements in Nulane case

The state has been accused of unreasonable delays after it requested a postponement of the Nulane trial to Monday to allow a witness based in Nigeria to get to SA.

At the end of the cross-examination of financial investigator Ntokozo Zama, another state witness on Tuesday afternoon, advocate Peter Serunye asked for a postponement until Monday as the next witness was only expected in the country on Friday.

All five counsel representing the accused objected to the postponement, saying it was unreasonable and prejudiced their clients.

Charles Church, who worked for Deloitte, which was subcontracted by Nulane Investments to conduct a feasibility study, now lives in Nigeria and will only be able to travel to the country on Friday.

All the defence counsels indicated they “vehemently oppose” the state’s postponement request, labelling it a delay tactic, and suggested arrangements be made for him to testify virtually.

Mike Hellens, representing Islandsite and Ronica Ragavan, told the court the state had not made reasonable means to get Church to get to court to testify today.

“Prejudice is significant not only in time and costs but also in preparing for a cross-examination. A postponement would be massively prejudicial,” Hellens said.

Acting judge Nompumelelo Gusha gave Serunye until tomorrow morning to indicate alternative means for Church to testify virtually.

Church was initially supposed to testify during the first week of the trial, but that did not happen as defence lawyers had asked for more time to go through a report that they had been handed the night before.

Patel’s lawyer Kenny Oldwage also requested to have a mirror image of his hard drive from which he had found a copy of the feasibility study report. The trial is expected to continue on Wednesday.