‘You roll your eyes’: Matlala advocate takes on judge in courtroom clash

Controversial businessman Vusimuzi ‘Cat’ Matlala, and his legal representative Annelene van den Heever An advocate in the trial of Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala and his four co-accused stopped mid-argument on Thursday afternoon to tell the judge she did not appreciate the way he was looking at her. Advocate Annelene Van den Heever, who represents Matlala and his wife Tsakani, was cross-examining the state’s first witness when Judge Cassim Moosa began questioning where her line of questioning was headed. “When I’m trying to address your lordship, you look up in the sky and roll your eyes and then you shake your head.

“With the greatest of respect, I’m trying to do my work as counsel here.” Moosa said he simply wanted to understand where she was going. He asked whether the defence was going to argue that taxi boss Joe “Ferrari” Sibanyoni’s red Ferrari had never been at the Centurion Golf Estate on the night of the shooting, given that it does not appear on the police sketch plan. Van den Heever said she was not obliged to put a version at that stage.

“My lord, I am entitled to test the veracity of this witness’s evidence,” she said. She said she was entitled to cross-examine on the objective evidence recorded in the local criminal record centre file, and asked to continue.