A man staggering and groping like a blind man and swearing like a sailor. That was the picture painted of Pretoria High Court Judge Nkola Motata by the state’s first witness at the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.
The witness, Richard James Baird, told the court that the judge was drunk during the early hours of January 6 when the incident occurred. “He couldn’t stand up without holding on to his car; he smelled of alcohol. The look in his eyes … they were swimming,” he said.
Baird owns the house in Hurlingham, Johannesburg, into which Motata allegedly crashed on the night of January 6.
The judge is charged with driving under the influence of liquor or drugs and, alternatively, reckless and negligent driving. He is also charged with defeating the ends of justice, with an alternative charge of resisting arrest.
Motata has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
A point of interest is what should happen should he be found guilty.
The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) is the only body that may recommend the impeachment of a judge, but it will only investigate if a person or a body lodges a complaint.
The JSC is now said to be probing the relationship between Cape Judge President John Hlophe and the Oasis investment group.
Earlier this year, Oasis sued Judge Siraj Desai for alleged defamation over remarks he made at a public meeting.
Hlophe, who was a paid consultant for Oasis, controversially gave the group the permission it needed to sue Desai.
However, Desai argued that Hlophe did not have the authority to decide on the prosecution as he was compromised because of his relationship with Oasis.
By Hlophe’s own admission he received monthly payments, first of R10 000 and later of R12 500, from Oasis as a trustee of an Oasis-administered retirement fund. The payments totalled R467 000 over a period of more than three years.
Who judges the judges?
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President Thabo Mbeki is to be commended for his speech at the United Nations this week. Mbeki urged the world’s nations to let actions speak louder than words and to stop making “declaration after declaration against poverty and underdevelopment” without meaning it. |
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It would be a miracle if Burma’s junta, like Zimbabwe’s Mugabe, stepped down. Both have clung to power for too long, wrecking their country’s economies in the process. The regime has reacted brutally to people who were protesting peacefully. Where will it end? |
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