The Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday heard a recording of Judge Nkola John Motata swearing at the businessman whose wall the judge crashed into, allegedly while drunk.
”We’ll repair the damage, it’s not a problem,” the judge was heard telling businessman Richard Baird’s tenant.
”However, he [Baird] must not degrade me. No Boer is going to undermine me; fuck him, he mustn’t insult me, fuck him, I don’t care,” Motata was heard saying in the recording Baird made on an i-mate cellphone.
The court heard all five audio recordings made at the scene of Motata’s car accident in Johannesburg in January last year.
This followed a Pretoria High Court ruling that dismissed Motata’s application to stop the disputed recordings from being played during a trial-within-a-trial to test their admissibility.
Baird made the recordings on his cellphone and then downloaded the clips to his computer.
Setswana and Sesotho could be heard spoken on some of the recordings and magistrate Desmond Nair had to call in interpreters to translate.
Motata, dressed in a black pinstripe suit, hardly looked up as he made notes on the recording transcripts.
In the first recording heard in court, Motata was heard saying: ”They think they have apprehended me with something they know. My children … this used to be the white man’s land, even if they can have more land … South Africa is ours, we are ruling South Africa.”
The court heard how metro police at the scene pleaded with Motata to calm down and ”leave Baird alone” as he swore at Baird.
Motata was also heard demanding his car keys back and swearing.
”Someone took my keys … the white fellow must tell who took my keys … Fuck you … I don’t have to cooperate with you [metro police]”.
During cross-examination, defence advocate Danie Dorfling queried the originality and quality of the audio recordings heard in court.
”We will call in our information technology law expert, Professor Dana Van Der Merwe, to advise us in court on the technical aspects raised today [Wednesday],” said Dorfling.
It emerged in court that the audio recordings played were an ”encrypted version” stored in a separate ”working folder” on Baird’s laptop on September 23 last year. However, Baird said he had stored the recordings in the folder for the court proceedings.
Dorfling argued that an earlier copy of the recordings stored in the ”first generation” folder (September 27 2007) predated the ”working folder”.
In his query about the originality of the recordings, Dorfling questioned the manner in which the Baird took the recordings.
”Why was the digital camera clip replaced by the cellphone recordings?” he probed.
Baird said he started recording the events immediately after the crash on his digital camera, but quickly switched to his cellphone because the camera’s flash was not working.
Motata, presently on paid leave, was charged with drunken driving and defeating the ends of justice after smashing his Jaguar into the wall of Baird’s Hurlingham, Johannesburg, property.
Motata’s bail was extended. The trial continues. — Sapa