Adv. Dali Mpofu, legal representative for Thandi Modise, speaker of parliament, has brought an application for dismissal in the animal abuse case against her, when the case resumed in the Potchefstroom Regional Court, after testimony from a veterinarian and a former employee on her farm was heard yesterday. In a surprising twist, Mpofu asked the court to acquit Modise on the basis of insufficient evidence to link her to the abuse case.
The defense may bring such an application after the prosecution has closed their case, in terms of Section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Act. The damning testimony of Tebogo Mokaedi, the last farm worker to work on Modise’s farm in North West province, where hundreds of animals died in 2014, was claimed to be lies by a fellow witness.
Mokaedi had testified the day before that he had worked on Modise’s farm for about two months, but that he had only been paid R200 at the time. He further submitted that feed was only delivered to the
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