A bout of 'flu has delayed the resumption of the murder trial of Thandi Maqubela, the widow of acting judge Patrick Maqubela.
|||Cape Town - A bout of 'flu has delayed the resumption of the murder trial in the Western Cape High Court of Thandi Maqubela, the widow of acting judge Patrick Maqubela.
When proceedings began on Monday, Randall Titus, for co-accused Vela Mabena, asked for a postponement.
He said he was doing so on behalf of Maqubela's lawyer Marius Broeksma, who had taken ill.
Titus asked that the matter be postponed to August 6 and the court agreed.
Patrick Maqubela was an acting judge in the Western Cape High Court when his body was found in his apartment about three years ago.
Maqubela, a qualified nurse, is charged with her husband's murder, and has pleaded not guilty before Johannesburg-based Judge John Murphy.
She was in the dock with Mabena, a distributor of health products, who has also pleaded not guilty.
At Titus's request, the judge repeated his earlier ruling that media photographers taking photographs of the two accused during adjournments, or before proceedings started, take the pictures from near the back of the courtroom.
The judge made the ruling after Titus and Broeksma complained about media harassment of their clients. - Sapa