'Evidence shows he's guilty'
2009-06-01 18:08
Johannesburg - The only conclusion that could be drawn from evidence brought before the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court was that High Court Judge Nkola Motata was guilty of drunken driving, said a State prosecutor argued on Monday.
Motata was "dozing behind the steering wheel", "smelled of alcohol", was aggressive and "said fuck you about 10 times", "had a glazed look on his face" and "could not stand without holding onto the car", said Zaais van Zyl.
His word construction was "inadequate" and "he was not coherent", the prosecutor added.
"The only reasonable inference is the accident was caused by the accused while driving under the influence of intoxicating liquor," said Van Zyl.
The State was opposing a discharge application brought by the defence which had argued that the evidence against Motata was weak and that the complainant was a racist.
'State has passed the test'
"The bottom line of all this is that it cannot be argued there's no evidence," said Van Zyl.
"There's evidence on which a court can convict. The State has passed that test. There isn't room for a discharge...
"There is indeed a case to answer with regards to the drunken driving."
Motata, 60, crashed his Jaguar into the perimeter wall of Richard Baird's house in Hurlingham, Johannesburg in 2007, allegedly while drunk.
Van Zyl summarised the evidence that had been brought before the court during the trial.
'Alcohol was found in blood'
He said the State conceded there were some errors in the forensic laboratory procedures involved in testing Motata's blood sample.
"But the bottom line is... that alcohol was indeed found in the blood... It has still been proven that the blood sample did contain alcohol. But how much, we simply do not know."
He also pointed out to the court that Motata's previous lawyer, Danie Dorfling, had said in a question to a witness that the accident happened "20 minutes after consuming alcohol".
Van Zyl pointed this statement out to Magistrate Desmond Nair and reminded the court that Motata had been travelling from Pretoria to Johannesburg at the time of the accident.
Van Zyl said he only picked this acknowledgement by the defence up in court documents recently. It was in the form of a question to a witness - that Motata had been drinking up until 20 minutes before the accident.
'Factual errors' in argument
Motata, dressed in a dark pinstripe suit and blue tie, and his defence team began rummaging through their files when Van Zyl said this.
At the end of the hearing, the defence said it would later point out "factual errors" in the State's heads of argument.
Van Zyl also dismissed claims that Baird's alleged racism was behind the decision to charge Motata, saying no such language could be heard on the recording.
Nair postponed the case to June 25 when he would give the State about 30 minutes to reply the defence team's written replies, which would be handed in to court within the next weeks.
After the State's reply, the court would start handing down judgment on the discharge application, said Nair.
- SAPA