Ekurhuleni metro police chief Robert McBride was drunk on the night of his December 2006 accident, a second state witness told the Pretoria Regional Court on Tuesday.
Former Ekurhuleni metro police officer Itumeleng Koko told the court McBride had bloodshot eyes, could not speak properly and had been unsteady on his feet before the accident.
During questioning by the state, Koko said it had appeared to him as if his boss was drunk.
He said that he was concerned about the amount of alcohol McBride was consuming at a police year-end function in the Hartbeespoort Dam area, and that he asked his former colleague and first state witness Stanley Sagathevan to enquire if McBride wanted to be driven home. He alleges that McBride told Sagathevan that he was fine.
Koko told the court that when he was travelling back from the year-end function, he noticed that McBride had been involved in an accident.
He said that his chief needed to be removed from the scene ”immediately” and that when he and a colleague stopped to assist, he noticed that McBride appeared to be in a calm state of mind — despite a cut to his head. McBride was standing outside his vehicle.
It also came to his attention that a bystander at the scene had taken the keys to McBride’s vehicle. He told the court that former police officer Hendrik Degenaar, who had also arrived at the scene, proceeded to ”strangle” the bystander till the person gave back the key.
Degenaar is to appear in court for defeating the ends of justice and assault.
Koko added that he drove McBride away from the scene, to be transported later by Sagathevan to a doctor in Boksburg. Once he had met Sagathevan, Sagathevan allegedly handed him his camera and he went back to the scene to take photos.
While at the scene he learnt that his boss’s service pistol was missing.
He said that the next day a press release was compiled stating that McBride had not been drunk on the night of the accident.
Then a search for a doctor who would compile a falsified statement began, as Sagathevan’s cousin, a doctor, refused to falsify a statement.
Among some of the people approached was a priest who refused to falsify the document as well as a Ga-Rankuwa doctor, who said he could help find another doctor as he had been deregistered. He then found Dr Joseph Moratioa, who agreed to falsify a medical certificate.
The police chief, who suffers from type-two diabetes, allegedly wanted the doctor to issue a note saying that he had low blood sugar. Moratioa allegedly said he had fabricated medical certificates before.
Koko said he, Sagathevan and Johnston all made their statements to the police on May 30 last year. Asked why he made this statement five months after the incident, Koko claimed he wanted to avoid being victimised.
He told the court he had made a false statement about the accident (that McBride had not been drunk) because he did not want to disobey his chief’s instructions. He said he had been threatened ”at many instances” and that if anyone said anything against McBride they would be killed.
McBride has pleaded not guilty to charges of drunken driving, defeating the ends of justice and fraud.
On his second day of testimony, Sagathevan said he was convinced his boss had been drunk as he ”[knew] his normal composure”.
This followed a question from McBride’s defence on how he knew that McBride had been drunk. He said a picture he took of McBride who was slumped on his chair gave him the impression he was drunk.
On Monday, Sagathevan claimed that McBride had threatened to kill his family and rape his wife.
The trial is set to continue on Wednesday. — Sapa