Monday, February 1, 2010

Tattoos and toilets


Two high profile trials hit the Joburg High Court this morning - both in front of the same judge in the same courtroom.
Our former police chief Jackie Selebi on trial for taking money from bad guys in exchange for a bit of preferential treatment and self-confessed druglord Glenn Agliotti on trial for murder for his part in masterminding the assisted suicide of Brett Kebble.
All very interesting and promising of juiciness and excitement in court - but unfortunately not to be. Both ended in postponements.
*sigh* So disappointing.
There we all were at court, a whole big bunch of journalists who had passed through two banks of metal detectors, signed our way in and been issued with red cards to hang around our necks. I am not sure why - maybe it was so you could go to the toilet and come back without going through the whole security rigmarole again, but I am not sure as I do my absolute utmost to avoid the high court toilets. They are ceramic loos with no seats, no toilet paper, no doors in some cases and generally no working taps at the basin. Best to be avoided unless you are absolutely desperate and have your own supply of tissues and that nifty waterless handcleaner stuff.
We were hoping for action and sensation, but there was none. We thought we might see the tattooed boxer Mickey Schultz - the gunman who shot Kebble dead and has immunity from prosecution for it, only to discover later that he'd dressed neatly and kept out of sight.
And then it was all over. A bunch of us sat on the court steps afterwards, hoping that something else would happen or one of the mystery witnesses would suddenly appear and talk to us. But alas, no such luck.
The photographers sauntered back to the restaurant across the road where the pizzas they'd ordered while waiting for use to leave the court had been delivered and were now growing cold.
I walked back to the office.
And will have to return on Wednesday when Agliotti's trial will start for real.
It's going to be fun!

2 comments:

  1. Oy... sounds like its going to be more and more of the same.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lots of hurry up and wait. And yuck, one would think the High Court could do a little bit better with toilets. Even cinemas have decent ablutions. Disgraceful.

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