Mbombela – The trial of a driver charged with murdering 24 farmworkers, when his truck crashed into a goods train in Mpumalanga last year, was postponed on Monday.

George Mandlazi, 33, was not asked to plead to 24 counts of murder, and reckless or negligent driving when he appeared in the Nelspruit Circuit of the High Court in Pretoria on Monday, a Sapa correspondent reported.

The trial was postponed to Wednesday after Mandlazi’s defence told the court it was not ready to proceed.

Mandlazi is out on bail of R3000, which was granted by the Barberton Magistrate’s Court last August.

He previously told the court he intended pleading not guilty.

He was driving the truck when it collided with a coal train between Hectorspruit and Malalane on Friday, July 13 last year. Nineteen people died on the scene of the crash and five died later in hospital or on their way to hospital.

Mandlazi was initially charged with culpable homicide, and then murder. The charge was reduced to culpable homicide at his first court appearance, but was later changed back to murder.

Sapa