Overview

• The Modimolle Regional Court granted the State’s Section 190 application to treat a witness as hostile after he disowned his police statement and said he was scared, while denying a Section 189 bid.
• A second transporter also reversed parts of his earlier statement and was declared a hostile witness after being confronted with an allegation that he later sought help to exchange US dollars.
• The magistrate said a ruling on a trial-within-a-trial over the disowned statement’s admissibility will be delivered electronically on Thursday.
• Testimony included claims that burglars first broke into a neighbouring farmhouse on 9 February 2020, stealing only cushions, before the later theft at Phala Phala.
• Prosecutors plan to call about 15 more witnesses and to present cellphone records to trace movements linked to the alleged theft of roughly $580,000 hidden in a couch at the farm.