Siyabonga Nqakula was on Monday effectively given a sentence of a R10 000 fine or six months in prison on a charge of drunken driving.
Nqakula’s father is Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula and his mother Minister of Home Affairs Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula.
His hearing, in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court before Phindi Norman, was a sequel to a late-night head-on smash in the Cape Town CBD in March last year.
Nqakula (28) allegedly fell asleep at the steering wheel of his mother’s car after he had driven all night the previous night from Johannesburg to Cape Town to attend last year’s jazz festival, and had arrived in the city at about 9am.
Without having any rest, Nqakula and his companions had spent the day visiting friends before drinking champagne in a restaurant
Prior to sentence, his counsel, Sakkie Maartens, informed the court that Nqakula’s parents were present at the proceedings and had enough money for a substantial fine.
However, when Norman sentenced him to R20 000 or 12 months, with half conditionally suspended for five years, Nqakula had to wait in the courtroom until his family returned with additional money.
Norman said Nqakula was lucky that no one had died in the smash, otherwise he would have been in the dock of the regional court facing one or more culpable homicide charges.
On the night that he caused the collision, he had been a danger not only to himself, but to his passengers and other road users, Norman said.
Norman told Nqakula: ”You made a stupid decision, for which you now have to pay — you now have to learn from your mistake.”
Maartens told the court that Nqakula’s arrest, and the publicity about the case, had had a punitive affect on him, and had caused him and his family shame and embarrassment.
Norman said she had an option to suspend Nqakula’s driver’s licence as well, but because he could not afford the luxury of a chauffeur, she would allow him a second chance. — Sapa