Update

GEORGE NEWS - The five War on Waste accused appeared briefly in the George Regional Court on Friday 22 April, but the case was yet again postponed and will only continue on 2 June.

Getting everyone "on the same page" proved to be a challenge due to the absence of proper pagination throughout the hefty document.

The accused are former George mayor Melvin Naik, former municipal manager Trevor Botha, former director of community services Walter Hendricks*, a former EPWP worker, Rowan Botha, and municipal official, Wessel Robertson*. 

The Hawks Serious Commercial Investigation served the five accused with court summonses in September 2020 on charges of fraud, corruption and contravention of the Municipal Finance Management Act. The charges relate to Naik's mayoral project, War on Waste.

The court heard during a sitting in March that some pages in the documents were missing and some were illegible. The state prosecutor and defence's legal representation met later that month to discuss these matters.

 On Friday the court granted another six weeks to get everything ready for a pre-trial. State prosecutor Adv Xolile Jonas said the procurement of the software needed to assist with the scanning and pagination took time. "We are now in the process of scanning the dockets," he said.

Magistrate Emma Moloro granted the request for a postponement made by both the state and the defence, to synchronise themselves.

Botha, Hendricks and Naik have previously strongly proclaimed their innocence. Hendricks is represented by a Cape Town law firm, Davidson Badrodien Attorneys, while Melvin Naik, Wessel Robertson and Rowan Botha are represented by Clayton Samson of Jansen & Samson Attor-neys in George. Trevor Botha is represented by Regan Brown.

Hendricks was, until last week, the acting municipal manager in Oudtshoorn while Robertson manages the cleaning division at George Municipality. Robertson's disciplinary hearing has been underway for a while and is nearing finalisation.