An outburst by an angry Judge Nkola Motata on Thursday in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s court earned him a rebuke from the magistrate in his drunk-driving trial.
”Mr Motata you are now disturbing proceedings,” said magistrate Desmond Nair after Motata approached his counsel twice before standing up and attempting to speak to Nair directly.
Motata was apparently unhappy with Nair’s decision to interrupt the defence’s cross-examination in order to replay five recordings of Motata’s alleged drunken rantings.
Defence advocate Danie Dorfling said his client rather wanted to continue with the cross-examination or just listen to the clip of the recordings relevant to their questions.
He said otherwise the ”design” of their defence would be disrupted if the cross-examination of witness Richard Baird would have to continue on Friday.
The magistrate ruled against the request.
Motata told the magistrate he did not want his right to consult with his legal team to be taken away.
”I have the right to give my legal team instruction.”
He asked the magistrate if he could address him directly, ”so that there is no triangle”.
Nair then told defence advocate Dorfling and Motata: ”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.”
Nair told Motata that he was represented by Dorfling and could make submissions through him. He would not accept ”outbursts, such as what I’ve seen now”.
Motata told 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 Pretoria High Court judge.
‘He was asleep, or his eyes were closed’
Earlier Baird said he did not speak to the Motata for the first half an hour on the accident scene 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 said.
Baird is the owner of the Hurlingham property into Johannesburg into which Motata crashed his Jaguar in January 2007.
Baird said he had been trying to contact the police during his first half an hour at the accident scene.
When he did greet the judge it began not ”an argument, but a one-way ranting”.
Dorfling told Nair that the defence hoped to prove that five recordings Baird made at the scene of the judge’s alleged rantings were not admissible 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 conspired.”
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 on the accident scene.
Disputed recordings
On Wednesday, the court heard a recording of Motata swearing at Baird. ”We’ll repair the damage, it’s not a problem,” the judge was heard saying.
”However, he [Baird] must not degrade me. No Boer is going to undermine me; fuck him, he mustn’t insult me, fuck him, I don’t care,” Motata was heard saying in the recording Baird made on an i-mate cellphone.
The court heard all five audio recordings made at the scene of Motata’s car accident.
This followed a Pretoria High Court ruling that dismissed Motata’s application to stop the disputed recordings from being played during a trial-within-a-trial to test their admissibility.
Baird made the recordings on his cellphone and then downloaded the clips to his computer.
Setswana and Sesotho could be heard spoken on some of the recordings and magistrate Desmond Nair had to call in interpreters to translate.
In the first recording heard in court, Motata was heard saying: ”They think they have apprehended me with something they know. My children … this used to be the white man’s land, even if they can have more land … South Africa is ours, we are ruling South Africa.”
The court heard how metro police at the scene pleaded with Motata to calm down and ”leave Baird alone” as he swore at Baird.
Motata was also heard demanding his car keys back and swearing.
”Someone took my keys … the white fellow must tell who took my keys … Fuck you … I don’t have to cooperate with you [metro police]”. – Sapa