Intro:

The judge in the murder trial of Oscar Pistorius has ruled that proceedings will adjourn for more than two weeks after Thursday (16th April) and resume on May 5th.

Script:

SOUNDBITE (English) Judge Thokozile Masipa (with picture overlay):

"The state has made an application for a postponement in this matter later this week. I assume it is tomorrow Thursday the 17th of April 2014 to 5th May 2014. The application is not opposed. The main basis of the application is that this matter, which was estimated to run for three weeks, has now been running for almost seven weeks. The result is that it has now encroached on on other matters on the roll."

SOUNDBITE (English) Judge Thokozile Masipa:

"Much of the evidence is technical evidence from expert witnesses, there is a lot of reading to be done and my assessors and I will use the break to work on the record. I urge counsel who will be going on holiday to take the record with them and find some time to do some work. In my view that will somewhat curtail the time that might be needed to prepare heads of arguments and to write a judgement."