Judge Hlophe cautions prosecution to ensure witnesses appear in Bongo case
By Mwangi Githahu
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Cape Town - Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe on Tuesday cautioned the state prosecutors in the case of the ANC MP and former state security minister Bongani Bongo, to ensure their witnesses appear when required.
Judge Hlophe was forced to adjourn proceedings early after two of the state’s witnesses, secretary to the National Council of Provinces division Modibedi Phindela and acting secretary to Parliament Penelope Tyawa, failed to appear in court to give evidence in the case where Bongo is charged with attempting to bribe a senior parliamentary official.
Prosecutors told the court they were planning to examine them on Friday.
Hlophe, however, said they had elected not to come and “didn’t take this seriously”.
“This borders on contempt. I am very angry. Nobody wastes his time,” he said.
The matter against Bongo comes after former president Jacob Zuma announced, in 2017, an inquiry into the power utility following several allegations of corruption.
According to an initial affidavit by Vanara, who was the inquiry’s evidence leader at the time, Bongo asked him to fake an illness and take sick leave because the inquiry could not proceed in his absence.
The trial of corruption accused ANC MP Bongani Bongo was abruptly postponed on Tuesday.
Parliamentary staff called as witnesses frustrated Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe when they failed to appear in court.
Proceedings are set to resume on Friday. Nobody wastes my time.
This was the stern warning Western Cape Judge John Hlophe gave State prosecutors who were left red-faced when their witnesses failed to appear in court to testify in the corruption trial of ANC MP Bongani Bongo.
Bongo, a former state security minister, has pleaded not guilty to a corruption charge emanating from an accusation that he tried to disrupt a parliamentary inquiry into state capture at Eskom on 10 October 2017.