Floyd Shivambu’s assault case postponed once again

EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu’s assault case has been postponed to February 2022 after his advocate made the request to the magistrate, saying he was tied up by a high court trial in Pretoria.

During a brief appearance at the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court, the State objected to the request for postponement and said the matter had gone on much longer than expected.

The State argued that it had two witnesses available and was ready to proceed, but the Court granted the request for a postponement.

However, the prosecutor asked for it to be placed on record that the State was at all relevant times ready to proceed. Shivambu is charged with common assault following an assault on a journalist in the parliamentary precinct in March 2018.

Adrian de Kock was allegedly choked and hit in the face when he approached Shivambu for comment on former Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille’s disciplinary hearing, which was being held in Parliament at the time. De Lille is currently the minister of Public Works and Infrastructure.

De Kock said he approached Shivambu for comment on the De Lille issue, but was pushed away. The incident happened in full view of journalists and parliamentary staff.

During the incident, a scuffle broke out between De Kock and Shivambu, who later walked away when he saw other journalists approaching.

The case was originally meant to have been heard in July 2020 but because of lockdown restrictions it was moved to October that year.

When the case came up in October, Shivambu's lawyer, Ross McKernan, told the court that representations for an out-of-court settlement had been denied by the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP).

At that time the matter was postponed to February this year, when it was supposed to go on trial. However, when the time came the case was postponed yet again to June.

In June Shivambu pleaded not guilty to the assault. During the trial the first witness was a former Cape Argus reporter, Jason Felix, now with News 24.

Felix testified that he filmed the scuffle and posted it on social media, alerting other news media and the public to what had happened.

The case was then postponed to yesterday, when Felix was expected to continue with his evidence.

Shivambu’s advocate, Laurence Hodes, argued that Felix’s recollection of events was wrong and said Shivambu did not hit De Kock and that De Kock had pushed Shivambu.

Hodes said the official report of the incident by Parliament said that De Kock was not accredited to, or based in, Parliament at the time.