selebi gets date for high court trial  
27 June 2008

Magistrate Lalitha Chetty dismissed the defence’s application for the case to be removed from the roll, and said the state had not asked for a postponement for further investigation.  Selebi’s advocate, Jaap Cilliers SC, objected to the prosecution’s request for the case to be transferred to the high court and said the defence believed the state was not in a position to proceed with the trial next year.

“We have not received the final police docket as yet. In April we received a preliminary docket. Our concern is that the state until now is not in a position to provide the full docket to the accused,” Cilliers said.

Selebi’s lawyers and the prosecution met Johannesburg Deputy Judge President Phineas Mojapelo this month and a trial date was set for April 14 to June 19 next year. Cilliers said that after Selebi appeared in the Randburg court on February 1, his attorney had written several letters to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) requesting the docket that the state had promised in “a day or two”.   He said there was no reply until May 16, when the prosecution sent a copy of the docket, which did not contain all statements from witnesses on the witness list.

Cilliers said Selebi was also concerned by a story in City Press that the police and NPA were engaged in a war that could result in Selebi walking free on a technicality. Cilliers said the story mentioned an exchange of letters about what the NPA saw as a lack of co-operation from acting commissioner Tim Williams.  Cilliers said when they inquired, police management replied that they were not frustrating the investigation. The police also said the NPA had the documents it had requested. These included documents on the Brett Kebble murder and investigations of Gary Porritt and Billy Rautenbach.

In rejecting Selebi’s objection, Chetty said she had been told the prosecution and defence would meet in July to finalise handing over the docket.

Ernest Mabuza,  www.businessday.co.za