Johannesburg - The Acting Mpumalanga Director of Public Prosecutions, Matric Luphondo, will continue his challenge against the admissibility of evidence collected in his fraud case as a result of the sting operation on the grounds that the operation was not in accordance with the law.
The fraud case against Luphondo and his co-accused, the head of the Mpumalanga Department of Human Settlements, Kebone Masange, which kicked off on Monday, stalled in the High Court yesterday as a trial-within-a-trial had to be heard in relation to evidence collected during the entrapment operation that ultimately resulted in his arrest.
The former acting DPP and Masange are facing a range of charges stemming from allegations that the pair, among others, offered the State prosecutor handling the prosecution against Masange large amounts of cash and a bottle of 18-year-old Glenfiddich whisky.
The money and the whisky were allegedly handed over to prosecutor Andrew Mphaga during an undercover operation.
.According to Danie Dorfling, the legal counsel for Luphondo, the entrapment operation was conducted illegally, so any evidence of what happened during the operation was not admissible in court.
He argued that the authorisation for the entrapment operation was not in accordance with the law and that the evidence gathered was thus not obtained legally.
Dorfling questioned the Director of Public Prosecutions in Pretoria, Vernon Nemaorani, regarding the authorisation period he gave for the entrapment operation. He informed the court that it was done on March 17, 2021, up until April 15, 2021.
Nemaorani told the court, however, that the authorisation to include Luphondo in the sting operation was only signed off on March 19, 2021.
Dorfling argued that documentation to that effect was not included in the documents submitted by Nemaorani and that the only authorisation listed was on March 17, looking into Colonel Ayanda Plaatjie, a provincial head of the Hawks.
Plaatjie, who has since died, was the investigating officer in the criminal trial against Masange at the time and was also accused of negotiating on behalf of Masange for the charges to be dropped in return for cash.
Mphaga, who is under the witness protection programme, testified that in March 2021 Plaatjie insisted on handing over the case docket to him in person. However, Plaatjie refused to come to his office and insisted on meeting him in his car.
Nemaorani insisted that even though the date of authorisation for Luphondo was not listed in some of the documents, the evidence collected would still be admissible as the authorisation given started from March 17, 2021 to April 15, 2021, which covered the same period.
The matter continues today, with Nemaorani still under cross-examination.
The Star