Bloemfontein - Alleged genital mutilator Peter Frederiksen will conduct his own defence, he told the Free State High Court in Bloemfontein on Thursday.
He told the court during a pre-trial hearing that he had only heard on Thursday, when the State notified him that his lawyer Howard Woolf would not be in court.
The State handed in an email by Woolf giving reasons why he was not in Bloemfontein on Thursday.
Frederiksen has been battling to secure funds to pay for a private attorney since 2016.
The Danish national and former gun shop owner faces 59 charges, including assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, possession of unregistered medicine, distribution and possession of child pornography, conspiracy to murder, and bigamy. He also faces charges relating to possession of illegal firearms.
Difficult case
Frederiksen told the court that he had looked at the docket and would prepare for his trial himself.
Recently, he agreed to a Legal Aid representative, but soon after that he told the court he would rather use a private attorney.
Prosecutor Amanda Bester told the court that it would be wise for Frederiksen to have proper legal counsel for the trial as it was a difficult case.
Frederiksen told the court that a Danish-English translator would help him. Beste said the State had contracted the translator for the trial.
Frederiksen had said he had problems understanding a few statements in the docket that were in Afrikaans.
The court postponed the hearing until Tuesday next week, for the State to translate the Afrikaans documents into English and to get further information from Woolf.
Frederiksen was arrested in September 2015 after 21 clitorises were found in a freezer of his home.
Some charges against him relate to the murder of his wife, 28-year-old Anna Matseliso Molise. She was shot four times outside her house in Maseru, Lesotho, on October 20, 2015.
She would have been a key State witness in the case against her husband, the Hawks said at the time.
The Hawks raided Frederiksen's gun shop in Bloemfontein in May 2016 and seized more than 1 600 firearms.
