Court apologises to Sibusiso Khwinana’s family for delays in murder trial

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Pretoria - The Gauteng High Court, Pretoria apologised to Sibusiso Khwinana’s family, friends and state witnesses for delays in the trial, caused by a lack of a Kiswahili translator. The Khwinana family has been waiting impatiently for the trial into the murder of the Matwetwe actor to commence since Monday following his death in March last year. They initially fought against attempts to set the trial for May as they’ve expressed a great need to finally put the matter to rest and start healing. However, on Monday, when the trial was supposed to commence, the accused, of foreign nationality, was without his private lawyer. By the time the National Prosecuting Authority appointed him a legal aid lawyer, there was no translator who could communicate with him.

A very sincere judge Papi Mosopa apologised to the court, stating that unfortunately these delays could not be avoided as it would be unfair to put a man on trial who did not understand the medium of communication.

According to the court, the accused spoke Kiswahili but since the nguni languages can be the same but spoken differently, the court sought an appropriate translator for the accused.

The state assured the crowd that the appropriate translator was found and an urgent process to check and verify his papers was underway.

Mosopa assured the gallery that the trial will start on Friday and there will not be anymore delays on the matter.

He asked 10 state witnesses to come forward and stand in front of him and gave them instructions to be in court early on Friday.

He said he will start at exactly 9.30am and not a minute late.

He said those who may be late or cause further delays would be dealt with as per the law.

Sibusiso Khwinana’s father Khalo Khwinana said: “We are happy that the trial will finally start.

"It’s really hard to cope with this matter. At first they said they were scheduling it for May because the suspect’s lawyer did not have papers to represent him in high court and we said but no, why wasn’t that dealt with all along.

"They went and talked and came back to us to say they’ll start a trial.”

Khwinana said the whole incident has brought everyone pain, including his co-star in Matwetwe, Tebatso Mashishi.

“These boys were always together and this pained him so much because he had Sibusiso in his hands while they waited for paramedics after he was stabbed.

"His shoes were covered in blood, He is not taking this whole thing very well. We would be happy to get started with the trial.”

Pretoria News