MBOMBELA – Three months after the Hawks in the province made news headlines after the arrest of 12 traffic officers in connection with corruption and defeating the ends of justice, the case was dramatically removed from the court roll.
The defence lawyer Mr Vusi Sekgodi said the state failed to produce the dockets containing the accuseds’ charges, nor video footages or any evidence of the charges labelled against his clients.
“The state previously promised that all the dockets and contents will be made available in court and even a regional court date. The state did not honour its promise and I objected for any further postponement,” he said.
Also read: Eleven traffic officers arrested for corruption.
“As we speak, the accused are free like me and you, they were given back their bail money and the bail conditions are no longer there,” added Sekgodi.
On April 22, when the officers made their second court appearance Sekgodi said: “Since the arrest of the accused, they were only told that they were arrested for corruption, but we (lawyers) don’t have the details of the case.
This is one of the high profile cases, the accused are on bail and had been suspended from work. They have families to look after and were only informed that these offences date back from back as 2014 to 2016, yet we don’t have details of the matter,” he said in court.
By then Sekgodi called on the court to follow proper procedure.
“The accused must know which, when and where the offence was committed. The state should have a proper charge sheet and the defence must have access to those charges,” adds Sekgodi.
Also read:Mec warns traffic officers about accepting bribes
Hawks spokesperson, Capt Dineo Sekgotodi confirmed that the matter was removed from the court’s roll after the court refused a further postponement.
“The matter will be placed back in court in due course,” she said.
