court to rule on cellphone recording soon
17 July 2008

Judgement on the admissibility of five cellphone recordings taken at an alleged drunken driving incident involving Pretoria High Court Judge Nkola Motata is expected next week.

In the Johannesburg magistrate's court on Thursday, Magistrate Desmond Nair postponed the case to give the prosecutors and defence time to prepare their heads of argument. These would be presented on Monday and Nair would make his ruling on Tuesday.  Hopefully by Wednesday the full drunken driving trial would resume.

Earlier on Thursday criminal law professor Daniel Petrus van der Merwe said an expert given access to the laptop the cellphone recordings were downloaded onto might possibly be able to determine if any changes had been made.

Motata faced charges of drunken driving and defeating the ends of justice for allegedly resisting arrest on January 6, 2007. This after he crashed his Jaguar into the wall of a Hurlingham, Johannesburg property, allegedly while drunk. 

Sapa,  www.thestar.co.za