Former acting Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions in Mpumalanga Matric Luphondo has contended that the corruption case against him is premised on an indictment that is "extremely vague, ambiguous and does not necessarily constitute a criminal offence".
The trial against Luphondo and his co-accused, former head of the Mpumalanga human settlements department Kebone Masange, was meant to start on Wednesday in the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria.
However, the matter was delayed again after Luphondo’s legal team objected to the charge sheet. Advocate Danie Dörfling, SC, initially raised four issues with the indictment.
The first was around the use of the Minimum Sentencing Act in the indictment charges, despite the facts not justifying the inclusion of those provisions.
The State has since conceded and deleted the reference to the act from the indictment.
The second issue related to the second count, a charge of conspiracy to commit a crime, in which Dörfling argued that the indictment lacked details on why the accused’s conduct or actions constituted a criminal offence.
Sign up with Google
