DAY 0 The trial starts…… and finishes

Arriving at the court building at 09:00 this morning, it quickly became clear that we would not start at 09:30. There was a suggestion that Zola Mdyogolo was looking to plead guilty straight away. To do this his defence lawyer would need to draw up a written plea.

At 09:15 Zola was brought up from the cells below into the dock. It was unannounced and rather a shock to be suddenly in the same room, within 2 or 3 metres of someone accused of murder.

And that’s how we sat for the next half an hour or so – him in the dock and us in the public gallery, all facing the empty court, looking at one another. Zola’s father was sitting a few metres from me and they talked fitfully across the space between them. Occasionally one or other of the defence or prosecution team would come in and then leave.

It was announced that the court would officially start session at 11:15. With an hour and a half to wait we decided to go for a coffee up the road.

When the judge did open the case, Zola was still signing some documents just brought in, so we adjourned within 2 minutes of starting – not an auspicious start on top of the two hours of delays!

At the second attempt we did get underway and it really was pretty quick – Zola was pleading guilty immediately to all four counts, which he did in a quiet voice as each charge was read to him in Xhosa – aggravated robbery, rape, murder, house breaking.

After another adjournment for some technical changes to the plea statement, it looked like we could get the judgement in before lunch, but Judge Petsie decided to break at 12:50.

At 14:00 the judgement was given – guilty on all counts. The 21st of June has been set for mitigating statements, with sentencing on 23rd June. At 14:45 it was all over. Zola is remanded in custody until sentencing.

Tomorrow I’ll post what I can on what happens between now and sentencing.