By Thapelo Molefe
The attempted murder and money laundering case against alleged criminal mastermind Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala was postponed to 26 February for pre-trial proceedings, with the court confirming that he has been returned to the Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Centre, known as C-MAX, to allow his legal team to consult with him.
Matlala and his four co-accused, including his wife Tsakane, appeared in court on Thursday in connection with three alleged assassination plots, among them the attempted murder of his former girlfriend, Tebogo Thobejane.
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The bulk of proceedings focused on the defence’s concerns about consulting with Matlala after his transfer on 21 December to the eBongweni Supermax Correctional Centre in Kokstad, KwaZulu-Natal, nearly 700 kilometres from Johannesburg.
Matlala’s Advocate, Anneline van den Heever, told the court that consultation conditions at the facility were restrictive and made it difficult to properly prepare for trial.
“I don’t know if Your Lordship has ever been to C-MAX, but your consultations there are through a very thick glass, and you’ve got people around you the whole time,” she said.
“Unlike, for instance, downstairs in the consultation room, if you want to show documents, you can slip it underneath the wire bar that is there.”
Van den Heever said the State had disclosed three dockets containing numerous documents, as well as a hard drive with about one terabyte of data, including expert reports.
“We’ve got three dockets, quite a large number of documents contained in that. We also got the hard drive from the State. It consists of one terabyte,” she said.
She argued that meaningful consultation required direct interaction with her client to review documents and digital evidence.
“The easiest and most convenient way, because we want to deal with the pre-trial as quickly as possible, is to ask the court that we be permitted to do it here,” she said.
Van den Heever rejected suggestions that the request formed part of a delaying strategy.
“We are not going to make a habit of it. We ask that it be done in the interest of justice,” she told the court.
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“My client wishes this trial to go ahead. He’s innocent and he wants to prove his innocence in court.”
The prosecution did not oppose the temporary arrangement but requested strict conditions governing consultations.
Correctional Services had previously indicated that Matlala’s transfer to eBongweni was for security reasons.
The court heard that Matlala has been back at C-MAX since last week and will remain there at least until Tuesday to allow his legal team to finalise consultations ahead of the pre-trial.
A possible fresh bail application, which the defence indicated may be brought based on new evidence, was not argued on Thursday.
The matter is set to resume on 26 February for pre-trial proceedings.
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