The case against Glenmore activist Velile Ben Mafani was yet again postponed at the Grahamstown Magistrate's Court last week after Mafani decided to request legal representation.
The case against Glenmore activist Velile Ben Mafani was yet again postponed at the Grahamstown Magistrate's Court last week after Mafani decided to request legal representation.
Mafani appeared briefly in court last Friday and told the court of his intention to request legal representation in his malicious damage to property trial, set down to be heard on Friday.
The case was postponed to yesterday for consultation with a legal aid lawyer. Yesterday Mafani appeared again together with a legal aid attorney and the case was postponed to 10 December for plea and trial.
Mafani had previously made it clear to the court that he did not want to be represented by a legal aid attorney. He changed his mind last week, however.
Mafani, 59, is currently in custody serving a three-month sentence for failing to appear in court.
Magistrate Makheto Pheko ordered him to pay a R1 500 fine or spend three months in prison.
Explaining his failure to appear, he told the court he'd had to consult with his ancestors the day he was due to appear in court to face a charge of malicious damage to property (12 September). The latter charge was the consequence of his regular protest of throwing of a brick through a window of the Grahamstown high court.
Mafani had initially opted to represent himself in the main trial and he had been granted copies of the dockets to prepare for trial. However, he was again ordered to hand the papers over to his legal aid lawyer after he told the court he no longer wished to represent himself.
