Motata recordings can be heard

2007-11-13 12:39

Johannesburg - Pretoria judge Nkola Motata's application to temporarily block the Johannesburg magistrate's court from listening to recordings of his alleged drunken diatribe, was turned down on Tuesday.

Magistrate Desmond Nair said he would not allow the defence's application to have his ruling on the matter sent to the high court for review.

Last week Nair ruled that five audio recordings of Motata after his car accident could be heard as part of a trial-within-a-trial to determine their admissibility.

Nair said there had been considerable delays in the matter and trial dates had been postponed on an ongoing basis. "There have been no fewer than five applications I have had to give rulings on," he said.

"The bulk of the [court transcript] so far has been made up of argument. We have not gone through even 50 percent of the state witnesses [testimony].

The magistrate will meet shortly after noon with both defence and prosecution to discuss the way forward.

Last week, the defence told the court if their application for a high court review was turned down, they would force the court into a postponement by bringing an urgent application to stop proceedings until a review was complete. On January 6, Motata crashed his Jaguar into the house of now state witness Richard Baird.

The court has heard that Baird made recordings at the scene of the accident with his cellphone.

Motata is facing charges of driving under the influence of alcohol with an alternate charge of reckless or negligent driving, and defeating the ends of justice, with an alternative charge of resisting arrest.

- SAPA