Magistrate puts foot down in Motata case
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 recordings of Motata after an accident in his car could be heard as part of a trial-within-a-trial to determine their admissibility.
The magistrate said he would have to prevent the defence from making the case obstructive.
“The question that I must answer is when can a party rely on these provisions of review? What is clear is that this is not an absolute right. The accused does not have a free hand to do so ...
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% of the state witnesses [testimony].
The magistrate said he would meet with the defence and the prosecution shortly after noon to discuss how to proceed.
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. This would be done by bringing an urgent application to stop proceedings until a review was complete.
On January 6, Motata crashed his Jaguar into the house of Richard Baird. Baird is now state witness.
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
