Searches issue irks judge in ‘drug lord’ case

DRAMA continued in the Port Elizabeth High Court yesterday in the case against alleged drug kingpin Livingstone Makasholo as Acting Judge Ntombizodwa Seti-Nduna reprimanded defence advocate Terry Price for continuously bringing up the matter of two searches, one of them invalid.

The second search – of Makasholo’s Bluewater Bay house, on which the court is yet to make a ruling – came as a result of the first in Redhouse, for which a warrant was earlier ruled invalid.

Police confiscated items from a Redhouse property where Makasholo was arrested and they proceeded to his Bluewater Bay home where they continued their search.

Judge Seti-Nduna had previously, in a trial within a trial, ruled that while the warrant for the Redhouse search was invalid, she would still allow the state to lead evidence arising from the search.

“I made a ruling on this matter and you keep throwing it back in my face,” an irate Judge Seti-Nduna told Price before adjourning court and calling all legal counsel to her chambers.

The court had earlier in the day heard how Makasholo had offered policemen executing the search a bribe of R1-million each.

It was while they were testifying about what they found at the Bluewater Bay house that Price objected to the evidence being heard, saying it was the result of an illegal search as the officers had no warrant for this property. The trial continues.