Judge Motata acquitted on alternative charge

Judge Nkola Motata was on Thursday acquitted on a charge of “driving with an excessive amount of alcohol in his blood”, but still faces a drunken-driving charge.

Motata (62) was charged with drunken driving in January 2007 after he crashed his Jaguar into the perimeter wall of Richard Baird’s property in Hurlingham, north of Johannesburg.

The Pretoria High Court judge was facing two charges—one of drunken driving, and the other of obstructing the ends of justice.

The charge of drunken driving included two alternative charges—one of having an excessive amount of alcohol in his blood, and the other of reckless or negligent driving.

The second charge also included an alternative charge of resisting arrest.

“The accused has been discharged of the alternative charge of driving with an excessive amount of alcohol in his blood.

“All other counts stand,” said magistrate Desmond Nair in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court when he delivered his judgment on the discharge application made by the defence.

The case was postponed to July 16 for arguments and for the state to close its case.

Motata would not testify in his defence as his lawyer Bantu Bonke Pokogo told the court that the defence had closed its case.—Sapa