A well-known athletics coach was charged with raping a teenager two years ago. We still may not name him.

A Durban athletics coach charged with the statutory rape and grooming is insisting his teenaged accuser testify in open court and not via closed circuit television. Illustration: Lisa Nelson

• An athletics coach charged with the statutory rape and grooming, who was arrested more than two years ago but cannot be named until he has pleaded, wants his teenage accuser to testify in open court and not via CCTV, as ordered by the trial magistrate.
• He has launched urgent proceedings to stay his criminal trial, pending the outcome of a high court review of the magistrate’s decision.
• The prosecutor accuses the defence of Stalingrad tactics as the well-known Durban coach seeks to delay his trial in the regional court.

A well-known Durban athletics coach charged with the statutory rape and grooming of a teenager is insisting that his accuser testify in open court and not via closed circuit television (CCTV), so that he can “look at his accuser”.

“A virtual hearing can never substitute a hearing in open court,” he has argued in court papers seeking to review a ruling by the trial magistrate that the teenager can give her evidence and be cross examined remotely.

“She [the magistrate] did not consider that hearings by way of closed circuit television cannot replicate the holistic effect of a court room where the atmosphere is conducive to the truth, where litigants like myself can look at their accusers, and where the adjudicator of fact can view a witness and consider the witnesses demeanour and reaction, in particular to cross examination,” he stated in his affidavit filed in the high court in Durban.

The 54-year-old coach cannot be named because he has not yet pleaded to the charges, even though he was arrested more than two years ago.

He first appeared in court in December 2023 and has subsequently appeared in court dozens of times.

In January 2024, he was suspended by KwaZulu-Natal Athletics and Triathlon South Africa.

According to the charge sheet, the alleged crimes occurred between 2022 and 2023. It is understood that the prosecution will partly rely on WhatsApp messages exchanged between the coach and the teenager.

The case has been bedevilled by delays resulting in the family of the teenager lodging complaints with the prosecution authorities.

There have also been failed attempts to plea bargain.

The teenager was between 14 and 15 at the time of the alleged offences. She is now 17.

Following a pre-trial conference in October, the matter was finally declared trial ready and was set down to be heard by Magistrate Maryn Mewalal over four days earlier this month.

On the first day, before the charges were put to the coach, the prosecutor made an application for the complainant to give evidence “virtually” via closed circuit television.

The coach’s legal team opposed this, but the magistrate ruled in favour of the application.

The coach claims that this is a “grave injustice”.

He has filed a review application in the high court and also launched urgent proceedings to stay the criminal trial until the outcome of the review.

The state opposed the application. In her affidavit, prosecutor Sibongile Mkwanazi accused the defence of using “Stalingrad tactics”. She said the accused had not explained in any detail how his right to a fair trial would be infringed by the magistrate’s ruling.

In reply, the coach accused the prosecutor of committing another “gross irregularity” by disclosing the details of the previous plea bargain negotiations. This would now mean that he would ask for the recusal of Mewalal.

Durban High Court Acting Judge David Saks heard arguments in the urgent application on Friday and reserved judgment.

In the meantime the criminal matter has been adjourned until later this month, a “holding” date to determine when it can continue.

Approached for comment, the teenager’s mother said she believes the defence is “playing for time” while the coach is out on bail and continues with his life largely unaffected.

“My daughter was at court to testify and missed important school events only for it to be all for nothing. She wants to trust the system but the delays are making her feel more like a perpetrator than a victim.”

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