JOHANNESBURG - The Pretoria High Court Judge, Nkola Motata, currently on trial for drunk-driving related charges, is enjoying a highly lucrative holiday - all at taxpayer's expense. He is drawing a full judge's salary while on special leave pending completion of his court case, and would have received well over R1m by the time his trial reconvenes in July 2008.
Motata was arrested on January 6 2007 after reversing his car through a wall in the suburb of Hurlingham, Johannesburg, in the early hours of Saturday morning. According to witnesses he was in a highly inebriated state and he also allegedly resisted arrest by metro police-officers.
Zolile Nqayi, a spokesman for the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, confirmed yesterday that following the incident Transvaal Judge President Bernard Ngoepe recommended that Judge Motata be placed on special leave on full pay pending the finalisation of court proceedings. The Minister had signed off on this request.
In terms of the latest published figures (2006) High Court judges earn R687,904 per annum or R57, 325 per month. Motata was initially put on special leave from January 15 this year until the end of February 2007, but this was subsequently extended.
Judge Motata has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, and his lawyer's have repeatedly succeeded in delaying completion of the trial. On Tuesday, Magistrate Desmond Nair announced that the case would once again be postponed - this time to July 2 2008. Judge Motata has already received over R573,253 while on "special leave" - a sum that will have risen to well over R1m by the time his case reconvenes in July 2008.
When initially contacted by the Sunday Times on January 6 Motata denied that he had been drinking. "I wasn't drunk at all... I had been with one of my colleagues earlier that night drinking tea." He also claimed that he had merely "dented" the wall.
However, according to a prosecution document Motata had "reversed his vehicle across a verge right through a garden wall...on a very quiet, straight, good, dry tarred suburban road, smashing two panels and a pillar to pieces. The back part of the vehicle ending up inside the garden." The prosecution has also claimed that he "was aggressive at the scene and resisted his arrest to the extent that minimum force had to be applied to remove him from his vehicle." His blood alcohol level was found to be "at least" four times over the legal limit. He allegedly told two female Metro police officers: "Fuck you stupid female officers, you can't arrest me."
In his testimony in September Richard Baird, the owner of the affected Hurlingham property, claimed that Motata had also been racially abusive, and said "fuck the white guy" numerous times. When asked by the prosecution why he believed Motata to have been drunk, Baird replied that, "He couldn't stand up without holding on to his car, he smelt of alcohol and had a glazed look on his face."
