Breytenbach judgment delivered on February 28
FORMER State prosecutor and MP for the DA Glynnis Breytenbach will have to wait until next year to know her fate relating to charges against her after the case was postponed.
Breytenbach and her former attorney Gerhard Wagenaar face charges of contravening the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Act, and defeating the ends of justice for allegedly shredding work-related documents and deleting her private files from her work laptop.
After hearing heads of arguments, magistrate Brian Nemavhidi said he would deliver his judgment on February 28.
Yesterday, State prosecutor Raymond Mathenjwa argued for almost two hours that Breytenbach and Wagenaar contradicted the act knowingly and consciously.
“They knew it was a criminal offence but they continued to delete the files. They chose to go against the legislature.”
Previously, Breytenbach said she deleted the documents on the laptop to protect her privacy.
She repeatedly explained that she did not use any criteria when deleting only getting rid of what she thought would harm her privacy.
She also said that she was cautious of the NPA in case it tampered and manipulated contents of her computer once she had handed it over.
Mathunjwa attacked Breytenbach’s testimony and said it was impossible for her to delete files without having checked.
Mathunjwa argued that evidence presented in court stated there were more than 41 folders on the laptop, but Breytenbach hired an expert to delete 13 folders.
This relates to documents deleted in a matter of a mining rights case involving Imperial Crown Trading (ICT) and Kumba Iron Ore subsidiary Sishen Iron Ore.
“This is the data they have retrieved and what they were protecting,” he said.
Mathunjwa said it did not make sense that the accused claim to not have seen the documents before deleting them but deleted the most important files.
Barry Roux, for Breytenbach, said his client as an NPA official had the right to delete files. He said the State failed to prove the accused intended to act unlawfully. Breytenbach also had a mirror image created of her computer’s contents.