The criminal abuse of office trial of the former Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko failed to start today for the umpteenth time, ZBC news reports.
The trial failed to start because Mphoko’s lawyer said he needed a transcript of the previous court proceedings to familiarise himself with Mphoko’s previous court hearings and advise his client from an informed point of view before he could proceed.
Said Magwaliba, Mphoko’s lawyer:
I have not been able to properly give advice to the accused person. I was not involved in those proceedings for the accused person from the word go.
I have not been able to properly and effectively give legal advice to the accused person on his rights and any matters that arose from those proceedings before my involvement. This morning the clerk of the court confirmed that the record of proceedings will only be made available after the 21st of February 2020.
I wish to place it on record your worship that the request for the record still stands and we still remain incapacitated to fully and factually advice to the accused person. Should any matters arise which require any issues that we have propelled already, I request that those matters be dealt with after the record has been transcribed.
The state promised to furnish Mphoko’s lawyer with the transcript by the 19th of February and 28 February was set as the trial date.
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