In mid-May 2024, the ‘grand corruption’ case brought by conservationist Fred Daniel against former deputy president David Mabuza and the Mpumalanga provincial government resumed under a new trial judge. A deeper reading of events revealed Judge Tuchten’s firm hand in the face of a serious threat to the judiciary.
Illustrative image | Sources: Deputy President David Mabuza. | Conservationist Fred Daniel. | GroundUp / Ashraf Hendricks | Twitter
Set down in the opening paragraph of a court order dated 13 May 2024, the words were confirmation of yet another inordinate postponement to case number 34502/2010 of the Gauteng Division of the High Court in Pretoria — a matter that had initially been lodged in July 2010; had run through five court sessions over more than 150 days; and had so far cost the plaintiffs in the region of R60-million in fees, with the South African taxpayer footing the legal bill for the government’s team.
“The defendants are not ordinary litigants. They are organs of state with heightened litigation duties. They ought to have approached this issue in a manner that better promotes the effectiveness and efficiency of this Court’s process. It is also in the interests of justice that the serious allegations of public corruption levelled against the defendants be determined as expeditiously as possible.
“Can I really impose a date?” asked Judge Tuchten, in response to Ngcukaitobi’s request that the trial resume on 1 June 2024.“Yes, well sure,” Ngcukaitobi continued, “that’s what the directive says. The directive says we’re not going to help them by non-availability of counsel.”Ngcukaitobi was adamant. “My Lord, but then, when are we going to get the trial… I mean, we can’t have this trial in 2025, that is just a fundamental breach of my client’s rights. And of the Constitution.
He was addressing a central point in the plaintiffs’ heads of argument, which Ngcukaitobi had presented earlier in the hearing — namely, that since every trial day of the previous court sessions had been recorded via Microsoft Teams, the judge could simply watch the recordings and resume the trial from where it left off.
For Judge Tuchten, it was clear by then that there would be no more “online” for case number 34502/2010; if he was worried about the security of the witnesses or even himself, he wasn’t admitting it to anyone. More significant, however, was the gap that he had just been offered by Ngcukaitobi; a gap that he appeared to be one step ahead of.
Then there was the second part of the third paragraph, which dealt with the admissibility of the oral evidence over which Judge Sardiwalla had presided. Here, the reference was to section 3 of the, specifically “hearsay evidence”. According to the court order, the witnesses that had previously given testimony would be subject to the various provisions of this section — with, again, the plaintiffs applying for certain evidence to be admitted, and the defendants opposing.
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