/ 11 September 2008

High court to rule on McBride application

The Pretoria High Court will rule on Thursday whether suspended Ekurhuleni police chief Robert McBride may gain access to papers he claims relate to his drunken-driving trial.

McBride has told the court the statements would help him prove that the state’s case in his trial is ”concocted”.

He brought a review application against a Pretoria magistrate’s ruling that he was not entitled to statements the three chief witnesses in his drunken-driving trial made in other criminal investigations in which he may be a suspect.

McBride insists his three former underlings turned on him because the police’s organised-crime unit had a hold on them for their involvement in other serious crimes, including attempted murder.

All three had at first exonerated him, claiming he was ”stone cold sober” when he had an accident with in official car in December 2006.

McBride’s drunken-driving trial in the Pretoria Regional Court, where he also faces charges of fraud and defeating the ends of justice, has been delayed pending the outcome of his high court application.

Judges Moses Mavundla and Khami Makhafola will rule on the matter. — Sapa