Lobatse High Court judge Zibani Makhwade is tomorrow (Monday) expected to pass judgment in a case the state has filed before him, expressing unhappiness in regard to the on-going corruption case against Member of Parliament for Serowe North East, Ndelu Seretse.
The state lawyers, Mpho Letsoalo and Rahiman Khan’s complaints are, amongst others, that the Southern Regional Magistrate, Barnabas Nyamazabo, has allowed defence lawyer Parks Tafa to cross examine a witness on hearsay evidence, which they say is prejudicial to the state case. They also raised a complaint that the defence lawyer was allowed to cross examine its witness, Taphudzani Peter Gabolekwe, on questions of law, whereas he was a witness of fact.
Further, they say that the defence was allowed by Nyamazabo to ask misleading questions during the trial.
Tafa has dismissed the application, saying that it was a delaying tactic on the part of the state that it lacked merits and should be dismissed with costs.
Tafa said that the allegations by the state lawyers that Nyamazabo had allowed them to cross examine on hearsay evidence was embarrassing and was made without any evidence to support it.
He also denied that there had been any misleading questions during cross examination.
“The question of whether the Cabinet was a procuring entity was relevant in that the charge sheet makes specific reference to Cabinet,” he stressed.
He also said that the question was for the purpose of establishing whether there was any involvement of cabinet in the tender in question.
Tafa pointed out that the question was relevant to criminal proceedings to deal with any avenue or possibility of how the accused person had acted corruptly. He also strongly denied submissions by the state that questions asked Gabolekwe were questions of law.
