Behave in court, Motata told

2008-07-03 21:10

Johannesburg - A visibly angry Judge Nkola Motata disrupted proceedings in the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court on Thursday, unhappy with the progress of his drunken-driving trial.

After Motata disrupted proceedings twice, Magistrate Desmond Nair said to defence advocate Danie Dorfling: "I just want to draw your attention that the conduct of Mr Motata is bordering on being contemptuous to court and I won't allow it."

Motata also tried to address the magistrate directly.

Nair told Motata that he was represented by Dorfling and could make submissions through him. He would not accept "outbursts".

Motata stood up and said to the magistrate: "I'd rather be addressed as the accused because I don't have the title of mister." - an apparent reference to his position as a judge.

Earlier, witness Richard Baird told the court he did not speak to Motata for the first half-hour at the accident because the judge was mainly asleep or resting.

"The accused was in his vehicle and part of the time he was asleep, or his eyes were closed."

Baird is the owner of a Hurlingham property in Johannesburg. Motata allegedly crashed his Jaguar into a wall of the property in January 2007.

'One-way ranting'

Baird said he had been trying to contact the police during his first half an hour at the accident.

When he did greet the judge it began " not an argument, but a one-way ranting".

Dorfling told Nair the defence hoped to prove that five recordings Baird made at the accident could not be admitted as evidence.

"I would like to argue that what we have as electronic recordings is a selection of data that was made by the witness intermittently and selectively to record information that was suitable to him for purposes of information in the court.

"But, it does not give a true and complete picture of what really, truly transpired."

Baird said the recordings were authentic and had not been altered in any way.

He said he had used technology on the advice of his advocate in order to get better evidence of what happened at the accident.

- SAPA