Witness: Motata fell twice

2008-07-31 14:06

Johannesburg - Pretoria High Court Judge Nkola Motata fell twice at the scene of his alleged drunk driving accident, the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court heard on Thursday.

"He fell earlier before the Metro police came and then fell at the time of the arrest," said witness Richard Baird, the owner of the Hurlingham Johannesburg property whose wall Motata crashed his Jaguar into, allegedly while drunk on January 6 2007.

Prosecutor Zaais Van Zyl said Motata apparently stumbled once and did not fall to the ground and then fell to the ground at the time of the arrest.

Baird said besides the judge smelling of alcohol and stumbling, he determined Motata was drunk because of the way he spoke.

"The inflections, the drawing of, the illogical argument, the thought patterns," said Baird made him think Motata was drunk.

The court heard that one of the metro police officers at the accident scene went down on his knees to beg the judge to co-operate.

Baird said Motata was sitting in his car holding onto the steering wheel and not willing to let go.

"It was the beginning of trying to effect arrest and the accused was not co-operating."

A male metro police officer then went down on his knees in an attempt to get him to co-operate.

Defence advocate Danie Dorfling said no other witnesses mentioned the policeman getting onto his knees in their evidence.

- SAPA