Pietermaritzburg’s chief magistrate Evelyn Monyemore is likely to be called to testify about the sentence in the crimen injuria case of local magistrate Divesh Mootheram.

Mootheram was found guilty earlier this year of the offence of crimen injuria for calling his boss a ‘corrupt black b***h’.

The sentencing process was postponed in the Camperdown regional court on Friday by agreement between state advocate Frank van Heerden and defence advocate Shane Matthews.

This after it emerged that the defence is objecting to a victim impact statement by Monyemore, which the prosecution wants to present to court, while the state objects to the two psychiatric reports that the defence seeks to hand in to court ahead of sentencing.

Van Heerden told magistrate Eric Vellam that he was unable to call Monyemore to the witness stand at short notice and the same applied to the psychiatrist on behalf of the defence. For that reason, they had agreed to postpone the matter to December 5, 6 and 7.

Vellam in his earlier judgment rejected Mootheram’s denial that he had uttered the offensive words to fellow magistrates Variska Premrahj and Ashin Singh on April 11, 2017.

He found that Monyemore was not at her office that day, that the words were uttered in her absence and that she had ‘heard about them’ later.

Vellam ruled that the words were ‘insulting’ and a ‘racial slur’ directed at Monyemore.