Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema’s court proceedings were delayed on Tuesday due to loadshedding.
Malema appeared before the East London regional court on Tuesday for allegedly firing a firearm in public in 2018. He appeared alongside his co-accused and bodyguard, Adriaan Snyman.
Justice Department spokesperson Stephen Mahlangu confirmed the power outage and said he expected everything to run smoothly once the recording machines started to work again.
The case relates to a video that went viral showing Malema allegedly firing what appeared to be a rifle in front of a cheering crowd on July 28 2018.
AfriForum opened a case against Malema accusing him of putting the lives of the public in danger by firing the rifle in a built-up area. Snyman is accused of handing Malema the rifle. They pleaded not guilty to the charges.
When loadshedding hit, the court was expecting to hear testimony from a number of witnesses who were first called on Monday, when the trial resumed.
Witnesses included Amanda Yvonne Steenkamp, a retired police warrant officer and facial identification specialist; Colonel Nkosikho Mzuku, who received viral footage of the event; Sarel Kruger who received the rifle; and Dwayne Francis, who downloaded the viral video from investigating officer Colonel Rodney Swartbooi’s phone.
On Monday, Steenkamp said she could not conclude on her result about the identification of firearm.
“Due to the poor quality, light levels, angle and distance of the CCTV cameras, the CCTV footage is too low to mark out the specific individual characteristics on the face and on the firearms,” she said.
She further noted that the CCTV footage is too low to mark out specific discriminating characteristics on the firearms.
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