The trial involving the death of former Top Billing presenter Simba Mhere and his passenger Kady-Shady O’Bryan is being heard in the Randburg Magistrates’ Court today, 29 October.
Mhere and O’Bryan died in a vehicle collision near the William Nichol and N1 off-ramp on 31 January.
The driver of the other vehicle, Preshalin Naidoo, has appeared in court several times.
The case was postponed in the Randburg Magistrates’ Court on 18 August for a report from an accident reconstruction expert.
The date for trial was then set on 26 August.
UPDATE: The case was heard this morning.
Today would have been Mhere’s birthday. The court proceedings hit numerous halts as there was mass confusion with regard to the defences’ expert witness.
Defence Advocate Francois Roets claimed he had not been properly briefed. They also claimed that their expert witness did not have sufficient time to comprehensively address the matter.
Naidoo first appeared on 4 June and the case has been postponed several times since. After consideration Magistrate Ndivihuwo Setusha reflected on the history of the case thus far. She alluded to the defence being very aware of needing an expert witness on 26 August and both the defence and the State had agreed to set the trial date.
Magistrate Setusha therefore did not give the defence permission to postpone the trial.
Advocate Roets then asked to be excused from the case, therefore Advocate Govender will take the case back.
Adv Govender then said he is not ready to proceed either. If the case cannot be postponed he would likewise withdraw himself from the case.
The case will be rolled over to tomorrow to afford the accused Naidoo the opportunity to acquire a new private defence attorney/counsel.
Follow @AshtynMackenzie or @randburg_sun for live updates during the trial.
