Three of the four lawyers representing the men accused of murdering Senzo Meyiwa plan to proceed with their discharge applications, despite Legal Aid South Africa declining to fund their preparation for the applications.
Four of the five accused indicated to the Pretoria high court they wished to apply for their discharge after the state closed its case in July, as they believed the state had failed to present a strong case.
Section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Act provides that if, at the close of the state's case and the court is of the opinion there is no evidence the accused committed the offence of which they may be convicted on the charge, the court may return a verdict of not guilty.
The lawyers for the accused, who are receiving instructions from Legal Aid South Africa, had been waiting to hear if they would be compensated for their work in preparation for the section 174 applications.
Meyiwa was shot dead in the presence of his then girlfriend Kelly Khumalo at her mother's home in Vosloorus in October 2014.
Mthobisi Mncube, Muzikawukhulelwa Sibiya, Bongani Sandiso Ntanzi, Mthokoziseni Maphisa and Sifisokuhle Nkani Ntuli are on trial for Meyiwa's murder. They have pleaded not guilty.
When proceedings got under way on Thursday, the Pretoria high court heard from a Legal Aid South Africa official that the entity was “not amenable” to funding the lawyers' preparations for the discharge applications.
“The (Legal Aid South Africa's) constitutional committee said that they are of the view that to pay an additional four weeks to prepare for a section 174, they weren't amenable to that,” said the official.
She said when Legal Aid assumed the mandate to fund the accused, they undertook to fund them through the whole process. However, she said, when deliberating the issue of the section 174 application, the question that came before the constitutional case management committee was whether they would fund a four-week preparation for a section 174 application.
“A decision was made that they won’t fund it. We won't stop them from doing a 174, because that is part of the Criminal Procedure Act,” she said.
Advocate Charles Mnisi, representing Sibiya and Mncube, had indicated that four weeks was the amount of time he would need to prepare. He said it would be a challenge for him to prepare for the application without any reimbursement.
“I don't think I'll be in a position to do that. I've already done that since January. I've read almost 40,000 pages and I don't want to get there, but I don't think I'll be in a position to do that for the second time again,” he said.
Mnisi, however, informed the court that Sibiya and Mncube's instructions were that they still wished to bring the section 174 application. “The challenge is, who is going to finance it?” he said.
Defence lawyer for Ntanzi, Sipho Ramosepele, though faced with the same challenge, refused to dwell deeply on the financing challenges and informed the court he would proceed with the application on behalf of Ntanzi.
Ntanzi said Legal Aid had indicated that the defence stood a slim chance of succeeding in the section 174 application.
“That's what they've just told our clients — that we don't have a leg to stand on in the 174 application,” he said.
Advocate Zithulele Nxumalo, for Maphisa, said that though Legal Aid had declined to fund the preparations for the application, he would continue as he had already begun preparing and drafting the application.
Advocate Zandile Mshololo, for Ntuli, declined to bring a discharge application and said she was ready to present Ntuli's defence.
The court ordered that the heads of arguments in the discharge applications must be filed on August 15, the responses, if any, on August 22 and that arguments will be on August 25.
TimesLIVE
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