It has been more than three years since the legal battle of senior regional magistrate Ronnie Rambau, who is currently facing charges of corruption, began.

Despite his suspension, Rambau is still receiving his full salary and benefits.

Rambau, together with his co-accused, attorney Tivoneleni Edmond Lubisi and ex-state prosecutor Estene Willemse, are facing corruption charges in the Musina Magistrate's Court for allegedly trying to influence the outcome of court cases.

Last year, the Zoutpansberger reported on a progress report that the magistrate’s commission (Rambau’s employer) had submitted to the justice committee of Parliament. The magistrate’s commission, according to law, has to report to the justice committee every three months on magistrates they have suspended.

What became clear at this meeting was that the justice committee was “extremely displeased” by the fact that magistrates charged with crimes are sometimes only suspended much later. In the very same meeting, Parliament suggested that Rambau’s salary be withheld, due to the fact that the matter has been dragging on for so long.

Rambau was suspended in November 2010.

A year later, in October 2011, the State closed its corruption case against him. Since then, the court has been waiting for Rambau and his co-accused to bring forth new evidence to prove their innocence.

In January of this year, the magistrate’s commission submitted yet another mandatory progress report on Rambau to the justice committee. This report, of which the Zoutpansberger was able to obtain copies, does not differ much from October last year’s report. In fact, the report looks almost identical. The minutes of the report were made available by the Parliamentary Monitoring Group.

Asked for comment last year, the magistrate’s committee’s secretary, Mr Danie Schoeman, said that the withholding of Rambau’s salary was still under consideration by the magistrate’s commission but that no final decision had been taken. He also said that a new date for Rambau’s misconduct trial was being negotiated with his attorney.

Schoeman’s answer did not differ much this week. Asked whether the magistrate’s commission had secured a date for the trial, Schoeman said that they were still negotiating a date with Rambau’s attorney. As was the case last year,  however,  it is not clear at this stage who Rambau’s attorney of record is since his previous advocate withdrew due to alleged non-payment for his services.