The SBV robbery case has been referred to high court.
“We are ready to proceed to high court, today we will see if the accused and their legal representation have the proper instruction and we will proceed,” said Mr Hein van der Merwe, state prosecutor of the Director of Public Prosecution.
The B-Court of Witbank Magistrate’s Court was bustling with a number of first time appearance cases prior to the SBV case being dealt with on October 2.
The accused walked into the court room, welcoming one another, like a band of brothers.
Van der Merwe withdrew a thick stack of documents from his catalogue case and approached the accused, he passed the stack onto the accused and asked them to distribute the indictments among one another.
“A copy of the indictment has been given to each accused,” said van der Merwe, who then asked the court if it was ready to proceed.
Magistrate, Mr Ernst du Plooy, said that the case will now be transferred to the high court of Middelburg Magistrate’s Court for February 8, 2016.
“Please arrange that all lawyers and legal representatives are present on February 8 that we may discuss who is representing who,” said Du Plooy. He then explained that the trial will take place over the period of July 25 to September 23 next year.
“I request that the accused ensure that their legal representatives are properly instructed and will be able to conduct their defence throughout that period,” said Van der Merwe.
Van der Merwe further requested that the accused read the indictment to have a better understanding of the charges against them and listed the charges as being four counts of attempted murder, four counts of kidnapping, a count of malicious damage to property, that of conspiracy to commit robbery with aggravated circumstances, robbery with aggravated circumstances and the acquisition, possession or use of proceeds of unlawful activities.
The accused stand before Witbank Magistrate’s Court.
He added that a list of state witnesses has been released.
“With that the case is referred to high court for trial, the accused are out on bail except for Mr Clack who remains in custody,” said Magistrate du Plooy.
The accused left the court room only two of the accused remained behind, Hans Kruger and David de Villiers.
The two will undergo a separate trial for their suspected involvement in hiding the stolen monies from SBV robbery which took place on April 27, 2014 in which R107-million was stolen form the holdings in eMalahleni.
With both De Villiers’ and Kruger’s legal aid applications being successful, their case was transferred to the regional court and both suspects will attend Witbank Magistrate’s Court on November 6.
