Gumede and 16 others face corruption charges linked to tender fraud amounting to over R400 million. She appeared in the Durban Commercial Crimes Court on Thursday.
Zandiel Gumede appeared in the Durban Commercial Crimes Court on Thursday 10 September 2020, where the matter was postponed to 10 December for the State to complete its forensic audit report on the case. Picture: Nkosikhona Duma/EWN
DURBAN – Former eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede’s lawyer Advocate Jay Naidoo said that the trial against his client was long overdue and they wanted it to start.
Gumede and 16 others face corruption charges linked to tender fraud amounting to over R400 million. She appeared in the Durban Commercial Crimes Court on Thursday.
The matter was postponed to the 10 December for the State to complete its over 350,000-page forensic audit report on the matter.
Gumede is currently out on R50,000 bail after she was arrested in May 2019.
The former mayor lashed out at the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) while addressing her supporters outside court, saying that the State was failing in its case against her.
WATCH: Zandile Gumede addresses her supporters in IsiZulu. She says the ANC is under attack and taking a stand against cases like hers will save the ANC. @NkoRaphael pic.twitter.com/yYgQGp4ukf
— EWN Reporter (@ewnreporter) September 10, 2020
“The State has been given another opportunity to complete the investigation and we hope that by 10 December it’s going to be the end of the investigation and we can start the trial,” Naidoo said.
However, the NPA said that it was now ready to proceed with the criminal case against Gumede and others because it had enough evidence.
The court heard that part of the evidence possessed by the State included over 5,000 pages of seized documents, 460,000 pages of bank statements, and records after interviewing 450 people in the case.
