Judge Nkola Motata has admitted to drinking on the night of his car accident, the Star newspaper reported on Monday.
He made this admission in a four-page response to an AfriForum complaint to the Judicial Services Commission (JSC).
”I was at a restaurant in Randburg together with one of my colleagues, where we had dinner. I arrived at the said restaurant at 7pm. Whilst we were having our meals, we consumed a bottle of wine where each of us consumed two glasses,” said the judge, adding that he had a cup of coffee before driving home.
Motata was recently convicted on a charge of drunk driving after he crashed through the wall of a Sandton property owned by Richard Baird in January 2006.
He pleaded not guilty in court.
Shortly the accident, he reportedly told a Sunday Times journalist: ”I wasn’t drunk at all … I had been with one of my colleagues earlier that night drinking tea.”
The Afriforum complaint to the JSC is based on an audio recording made by Baird on the night of the accident. In the recording, Motata is heard saying: ”No boer is going to undermine me … 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 civil rights organisation has accused Motata of ”racial misconduct”.
In his response to the JSC, Motata said that he was misheard and actually said: ”Yes, but you know my brothers and sisters, let me tell you, to most of us this is our land, and not for the white man only. Even if they have big bodies, South Africa is ours.”
The audio recording also captures Motata telling police officers responding to the accident that, ”There’s no boer who will undermine and degrade me. He must stop pestering me with this wall of his.”
By contrast, Motata claims he said: ”Even if I have knocked down the wall, I will pay, but he must not degrade/disparage me. There is no white man who can degrade/disparage me.”
Motata said in his response that the Sesotho word, ”leburu” [boer], was a general term for a white male.
”It is normal to refer to a white man in the Sesotho language as a leburu.
”Accordingly, I dispute the allegation that I am a racist and that it is necessary that I should be subjected to any investigation,” read Motata’s response. – Sapa