A second murder trial involving Sinethemba Nenembe — jailed for life for his role in the murder of Uitenhage schoolteacher Jayde Panayiotou — has had to be postponed again because he has still not paid his legal fees.
Nenembe, along with Fikile Mengo, 20, Mkhuseli Ngqanda, 29, and Thanduxolo Vumazonke, 23, have all been charged with the August 2015 murder of 78-year old Denise Webber.
Webber was tied up and strangled in the garden cottage where she stayed, in Needham Road, Kunene Park.
The four men, who face an additional charge of robbery with aggravating circumstances, have all pleaded not guilty to both charges.
Nenembe, 29, had in April been granted a seven-month reprieve by Port Elizabeth High Court judge Irma Schoeman to make the necessary payments to his lawyer, Peter Daubermann, to allow the trial to continue.
Nenembe’s mother put her house up for sale to cover the legal costs of her son’s case.
However, on Thursday, state prosecutor Marius Stander told the court that Daubermann had informed him that he had withdrawn as Nenembe’s counsel because he had not been paid.
Asked by Schoeman if he wanted to request representation from Legal Aid SA, Nenembe asked permission to first speak to his mother to discuss the funds.
After a brief discussion with his mother, Nenembe said the holdup had to do with the transfer of the house and that the situation was beyond his mother’s control.
“Everything is in order on our side,” Nenembe said.
Stander said the payment to Daubermann hinged on the sale of Nenembe’s mother’s property and the registration of the bond.
He said Daubermann had informed him that the conveyancing attorneys dealing with the sale had struggled to get the property’s rates and taxes certificate from the municipality, but had since received the certificate.
“The transfer will be done by mid-February but that would be the end of the trial,” Stander said.
Schoeman told Nenembe that he would need to make arrangements with Legal Aid SA representative advocate Jodine Coertzen because the trial would resume on January 27.
Schoeman adjourned the matter after Nenembe indicated that he would consult with Coertzen, but then backtracked and refused to sign Legal Aid SA documents, apparently on the instructions of his mother.
Murder accused Sinethemba Nenembe fails again to pay legal fees
Image: EUGENE COETZEE
A second murder trial involving Sinethemba Nenembe — jailed for life for his role in the murder of Uitenhage schoolteacher Jayde Panayiotou — has had to be postponed again because he has still not paid his legal fees.
Nenembe, along with Fikile Mengo, 20, Mkhuseli Ngqanda, 29, and Thanduxolo Vumazonke, 23, have all been charged with the August 2015 murder of 78-year old Denise Webber.
Webber was tied up and strangled in the garden cottage where she stayed, in Needham Road, Kunene Park.
The four men, who face an additional charge of robbery with aggravating circumstances, have all pleaded not guilty to both charges.
Nenembe, 29, had in April been granted a seven-month reprieve by Port Elizabeth High Court judge Irma Schoeman to make the necessary payments to his lawyer, Peter Daubermann, to allow the trial to continue.
Nenembe’s mother put her house up for sale to cover the legal costs of her son’s case.
However, on Thursday, state prosecutor Marius Stander told the court that Daubermann had informed him that he had withdrawn as Nenembe’s counsel because he had not been paid.
Asked by Schoeman if he wanted to request representation from Legal Aid SA, Nenembe asked permission to first speak to his mother to discuss the funds.
After a brief discussion with his mother, Nenembe said the holdup had to do with the transfer of the house and that the situation was beyond his mother’s control.
“Everything is in order on our side,” Nenembe said.
Stander said the payment to Daubermann hinged on the sale of Nenembe’s mother’s property and the registration of the bond.
He said Daubermann had informed him that the conveyancing attorneys dealing with the sale had struggled to get the property’s rates and taxes certificate from the municipality, but had since received the certificate.
“The transfer will be done by mid-February but that would be the end of the trial,” Stander said.
Schoeman told Nenembe that he would need to make arrangements with Legal Aid SA representative advocate Jodine Coertzen because the trial would resume on January 27.
Schoeman adjourned the matter after Nenembe indicated that he would consult with Coertzen, but then backtracked and refused to sign Legal Aid SA documents, apparently on the instructions of his mother.
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