The case against musician Molemo “Jub Jub” Maarohanye will be wrapped up shortly, according to reports.

After the case against the musician’s co-accused, Themba Tshabalala, reached its conclusion in the Protea Magistrate’s Court on Monday, the State asked that Magistrate Brian Nemavhidi also bring the case against Jub Jub to an end.

Last week, the magistrate ended the trial provisionally, pending the testimony of an expert witness called in defence of Maarohanye, who stands accused of murder, attempted murder, and driving under the influence of mind-altering substances.

The prosecution has accused both men of killing four children and seriously injuring two others after crashing their mini-coopers in the course of an impromptu street race in Protea North, on March 8, 2010.

Maarohanye’s defence hoped their witness, an IT expert, could undermine the validity of cellphone video evidence put forward by the State earlier in proceedings.

But Prosecutor Raymond Mathenjwa, addressing the court on Monday, said that the court had granted the defence’s application to present their expert witness on July 13, 2011, and they had failed to do so in good time.

“The State is filing a notice that, given the time afforded to accused one [Maarohanye], he had a year and despite all the resources made available by the State, he was passive,” said Mathenjwa, according to TimesLIVE.

He said that the families of the victims in the trial had been kept waiting too long already.
“The family of the deceased need closure, they have been here since we started.”

But Ike Motloung, speaking on behalf of Maarohanye, replied: “This is a clumsy attempt by the State to block crucial evidence.”

Motloung added that the State had done most of the talking during the already protracted rial.

“The case is hanging on a string. I want to finalise the matter,” said Nemavhidi, before summoning both the State and the defence to his chambers.

In the case against Tshabalala, the State accused him of falsifying his evidence and warned that his testimony could be rejected by the court. Mathenjwa pointed out that the accused’s attorney had not argued against the validity of the evidence supplied by other witnesses, which seemed incompatible with his own.

Responding to questions from his defence lawyer Mlungiseleli Soviti last week, Tshabalala refused to admit to having hit the schoolchildren. Asked if witnesses who claimed he caused the accident were speaking the truth, he said:

“It’s not true… I am certain that it’s not true [that my car hit Maarohanye's car].”