Motata drunken-driving trial postponed to Monday

Pretoria High Court Judge Nkola Motata’s lawyer has rejected an application by the prosecution to lead a new witness in Motata’s drunken-driving trial.

Arguing in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Thursday, defence advocate Danie Dorfling said introducing a new witness late in the trial would prejudice his client.

Prosecutor Zaais van Zyl indicated his intention to call such a witness, whose existence he only got to know of last week.

“The accused objects to such evidence being presented to this honourable court, as this would infringe the accused’s right to a fair trial, as envisaged in Section 35 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996,” Dorfling said.

He said the unidentified witness would further prejudice Motata as they had been privy to media reports on the case.

“While this is the case with most witnesses who testified, the said witness has never written an affidavit which could have been used to test them in court.

“We don’t have the luxury of testing the first statement and this will infringe on the accused’s right to a fair trial,” he said.

It was not yet known who the witness was, and Van Zyl said an application would be made later for that witness to testify in camera.

He requested that the trial be stood down and it will therefore continue on Monday.—Sapa