The Pretoria High Court has postponed the proceedings in the Senzo Meyiwa murder trial until Wednesday.
This after the trial hit another stumbling block on Monday when the new state witness requested for her testimony not to be broadcast live citing safety reasons.
State advocate George Baloyi brought an application to cut the cameras, citing the witness’ fear for her safety and discomfort with the live broadcast of her testimony.
However, Dan Rosengarten, representing the media, argued for the proceedings to continue as before, with no faces shown but for audio to be broadcast.
Rosengarten argued that the witness has shown through interviews she has conducted, that she is not camera-shy. He also stated that she was tweeting about the proceedings as they happened on Monday.
The unknown witness is said to be a “well-known personality who performs publicly from time to time”.
It has been widely speculated that she may be one of the Khumalo sisters, Kelly or Zandie, who were present on the night Meyiwa was killed in their mother’s home in Vosloorus, east of Johannesburg in October 2014.
Defence advocates for the accused also opposed the application, arguing that they were being “ambushed”, and that the court should not be influenced by public comments outside of the courtroom.
“This is an embarrassment to the South African justice system that at this stage of the trial we are dealing with this witness’ application,” said Zandile Mshololo, defence counsel for accused number five.
“We ought to have been informed much earlier about this request by the witness.”
Mshololo dismissed the witness’ fear of public scrutiny as an insufficient argument, stating that the court is not influenced by comments made outside of it, and noting that it makes decisions solely based on evidence presented.
Despite her own compromised safety having worked on the case since its inception, Mshololo affirmed her commitment to continuing with the trial.
“My safety has been compromised too as counsel here, but I am continuing with this trial,” she told the courtroom.
Advocate Sipho Ramosepele, representing accused one and two, dismissed the witness’ objections as “flimsy” and suggested that the witness’ safety would not be compromised if only her audio was broadcast.
Meanwhile, advocate Zithulele Nxumalo, representing the fourth accused, argued that the court should not be held hostage by the application of one individual. He urged the court to dismiss the application as baseless.
The state was expected to file its heads of arguments by 4pm on Monday while the defence and the media will file their arguments by 4pm on Tuesday ahead of the resumption of trial on Wednesday.
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