The prosecution in the Pretoria High Court judge Nkola Motata's drunken driving trial is to stay, despite threats they allegedly made against a witness, Magistrate Desmond Nair said in the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court on Tuesday.

Nair said prosecutors had a right to question witnesses if they deviated during cross-examination from any statements they had previously made.

"[A] prosecutor is a minister of truth, he or she is there not to persecute any individual but to assist the court in reaching a just conclusion," said Nair.

On Monday, metro police officer Paulinah Mashilela said she had been threatened that she would lose her job and spend many years in prison.

On Tuesday, Nair said he had held an almost hour-long discussion with the defence, prosecution, and Gauteng director of public prosecutions Charin de Beer about the matter.

He said De Beer was willing to talk with Mashilela about her concerns and see how to take the matter forward.

While he was not saying it was the case with Mashilela, nor was he making any ruling in that regard, but if a witness did deviate from a statement the prosecution could go so far as to discredit a witness or call them hostile.

Nair said he would "see to it that the proceedings are conducted in a fair, just and equitable manner".

Cross-examination of several witnesses is expected to take place later on Tuesday.

Sapa