Will Daily Maverick's alleged IDT bribe hidden camera footage stand up in court?

Lester Kiewit speaks to Craig Pedersen, Head of TCG Forensics, to discuss the admissibility of recorded footage in a court of law.

Listen below:

The suspended Independent Development Trust (IDT) CEO, Tebogo Malaka, denies claims that she attempted to bribe investigative journalist Pieter-Louis Myburgh.

She has labelled the hidden-camera footage secured by Myburgh and The Daily Maverick a political trap. 

The footage allegedly shows Malaka and her spokesperson, Phasha Makgolane, offering a R60,000 bribe to stop 'negative' coverage relating to an R800 million oxygen plant tender.

But would such visual evidence stand up in a court of law? 

Pedersen says Malaka would have a hard time convincing a court that it should be inadmissible.

ALSO READ: Daily Maverick journo offered R100k to quash IDT investigation (and he's got the receipts)

"The journalist seems to have gone to some pretty good lengths."

- Craig Pedersen, Head - TCG Forensics

"The footage was created by a third-party contractor, not on his own cell phone. It was properly set up... that footage was secured into a chain of custody directly after it was filmed so it could be authenticated."

- Craig Pedersen, Head - TCG Forensics

Pedersen says from a legal standpoint, the court would need to be satisfied on several counts.

Those would include that the footage was created by a third party and was captured and duplicated for the court.

It would also require that the original footage be sealed and that statements be taken by those who had captured the footage to authenticate it.

"Digital evidence is always seen as hearsay... by default, you must add provenance to it."

- Craig Pedersen, Head - TCG Forensics

Is the footage allegedly showing Tebogo Malaka offering bribes to a Daily Maverick journalist likely to be admissible in court? Scroll up to listen to the full interview.