Judge Nkola Motata’s drunken-driving case was postponed in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Thursday because a state witness is ill.
Metro police officer Paulinah Mashilela was apparently bed-ridden with ”stress-induced migrainous neuralgia”.
Court would resume on Wednesday to determine if she was well enough to testify. Mashilela was expected to consult her neurologist on Monday.
The court was handed a medical certificate and letter by her neurologist saying she had been booked off work until Tuesday.
Mashilela was in hospital from last Thursday to Sunday. She was apparently due to have an operation until her medical aid said it would not pay for it.
During Thursday’s court proceedings the state and defence argued intensely for and against the postponement.
State prosecutor Zaais van Zyl said that when the investigating officer visited Mashilela on Wednesday night, ”the witness was in very bad shape”.
”What exactly the future holds for the witness is speculation.”
Mashilela was apparently one of the metro police officers at the scene of the accident when Motata crashed his Jaguar into the wall of a Hurlingham property on January 6 2007.
She was believed to be heard speaking extensively on five audio recordings whose admissibility as evidence was currently being determined by a trial within a trial.
Van Zyl said her testimony was essential for the state to be able to put its best case forward. Mashilela needed to identify herself on the recordings and provide context.
Defence advocate Danie Dorfling said the state had given unclear and unsatisfactory explanations for why a postponement was necessary.
He said the contribution of the witness being able to say ”that’s me” on the recordings was not enough to warrant a postponement.
”The prejudice which the accused suffers [in the event of a postponement] substantially outweighs the prejudice suffered by the state.”
Magistrate Desmond Nair postponed proceedings until July 16.
”The court will seek to establish whether the witness can proceed in the trial.”
On that date the court may hear evidence or it may need to take further decisions on how to proceed, said Nair. — Sapa