The trial of two people accused of killing right wing leader Eugene Terre’Blanche has been postponed
|||The trial of two people accused of killing right wing leader Eugene Terre’Blanche was postponed in the High Court sitting in Ventersdorp on Friday.
The trial will resume on April 10.
Chris Mahlangu and a teenager are charged with beating Terre'Blanche to death in his farmhouse outside Ventersdorp in the North West in April 2010.
Both have pleaded not guilty to murder, housebreaking, and robbery with aggravating circumstances.
Mahlangu claims he acted in self defence. The teenager has denied involvement in the crime.
Earlier on Friday, the court heard that Mahlangu had implicated himself in the murder.
“I hit him on his head several times with a pole and then put it down. Then (the teenager) picked up the pole and hit him further until he died,” police officer Captain Mojalefa Nkosi quoted Mahlangu as saying.
Nkosi, who acted as interpreter and conducted the pointing out of the crime scenes with Mahlangu, was reading from a statement he took during and after the pointing out process.
Nkosi told the court Mahlangu pointed out the window they used to enter the house and found Terre’Blanche sleeping on his bed.
They took Terre'Blanche's cellphone after the murder. According to the statement, the pair went to a neighbour's house and phoned the police.
Judge John Horn pointed out that the statement of one accused could not be used to incriminate another.
“It’s the law that the admission or confession from one accused cannot be used against another.”
However, he said Mahlangu could implicate the minor if he testified in court.
Norman Arendse, for the minor, said it was problematic that Nkosi acted as the pointing out officer, interpreter, and the justice of the peace.
Arendse asked why answers on Mahlangu’s statement were in English and not in Northern Sotho, the language in which Mahlangu made the statement. Nkosi maintained he had only ever seen the forms filled out in English.
He said he read the statement out loud in English and then translated it into Northern Sotho.
Arendse told Nkosi: “In the event of a dispute you would want us to believe you, and in this case you must accept that (Mahlangu) was at your mercy because it was only the two of you.”
The lawyer said the pointing out officer and the interpreter should be two different people, and Nkosi’s actions did not comply with procedure.
“You did so knowingly without an interpreter or another justice of the peace so you could write down exactly what you wanted to,” Arendse told Nkosi.
“This gentleman is lying,” Nkosi replied.
Horn warned Nkosi the defence had the right to make propositions, which he could either confirm or deny, but he had no right to accuse the defence of lying. Nkosi apologised and withdrew his statement.
The last witness called to testify on Friday was local police Sergeant Shireen Adams.
Mahlangu's lawyer Kgomotso Tlouane asked her about claims that she did not help Mahlangu when he tried to lay an assault charge against Terre'Blanche.
She denied this, saying: “Because I cannot remember that I have ever spoken to him.”
Tlouane argued it was impossible for her to remember every person who walked into the charge office.
“I would have remembered any other charges involving Mr Terre’Blanche,” Adams said. – Sapa