Gabriel Kanjabanga, director of Longhurst Holdings (Credit: Mmegi Online)
The second and last witness for HP will be allowed to take the stand, after defendants Longhurt Holdings’ objection was overturned.
Longhurst argued that they had not been advised in time, nor that the witness was an expert, but the judge rejected the complaint as application was made prior to the case, Mmegi Online reported. The counterfeit case was reported on last week by The Recycler, with Longhurst accused of selling counterfeit HP printer cartridges, branded with HP’s logo. HP and Botswana’s Criminal Investigations Department (CID) began the investigation in 2013.
Longhurst’s Director, Gabriel Kanjabanga, who is also acting as attorney for the company, had said “notice must be given to the other party so that the element of surprise can be dealt with. I was not given any notice that HP would be calling an expert and I find it difficult to deal with him”.
He also said that McIntyre’s evidence summary did not include any reasons, but rather “he only said he purchased two toners and he concluded that they were fake and nothing else”.
The witness in question was Owen McIntyre, of Chasewaterford Company in South Africa, a group specialising in investigating and identifying counterfeits. He was asked to investigate discounted HP products sold by Longhurst and suspected to be counterfeits.
High Court Judge Terrence Rannowane said that “the defence was notified of the second witness and as such there is no element of surprise because they had plenty of time to object but they chose not to”.
HP attorney Reinard Michau commented: “We have only two witnesses and we have indicated that they would be taking the stand and there was no objection. We now feel the objection is just a delaying tactic.”