ADVOCATE MABILA, JUDGE CLASH

MBABANE – “You are blackmailing me.” This was said by Judge Nkululeko Hlophe during a heated moment between him and Advocate Mduduzi Mabila during Mfanukhona ‘Kakona’ Dlamini’s case at the High Court yesterday.

This was after Mabila had indicated to the court that he was declining his briefing by his instructing attorney on the matter and asked to be excused.

Mabila had made two applications in court to have an exhibit, a Toyota Hilux motor vehicle reproduced in court from South Africa for viewing purposes and that the Toyota expert who testified be re-called. He said an application could even be made to go to the neighbouring country to view the car.

The advocate insisted on having the vehicle brought to court to be viewed again and Judge Hlophe insisted on checking the records first to determine if there was a need to grant Mabila’s application. This went on until Mabila declined his brief (instructions) and walked out of the court.

After the walkout by the advocate, a number of police officers were seen in the court premises.
Before leaving the court, he said as the defence, they never got to view the car on cross-examination but had requested that the vehicle be kept overnight for cross-examination purposes the next day. He alleged that they were told that they would have to make an application if they needed the car.

According to Mabila, the judge indicated the previous week that it was recorded that there was tampering on the chassis number and Mabila said since they were outside the courtroom inspecting the car, it could happen that the judge recorded wrongly.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: