There is still a long road ahead for Judge Nkola Motata's drunken driving trial after the case, which has been going on for over 14 months, was postponed until late January next year.

Magistrate Desmond Nair postponed the case in the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court on Tuesday until 27 January 2009.

Provisional dates right up until 22 June next year were suggested in court for when the case could continue.

Nair said the case was expected to be set down from 27 January to 30 January and then again in the last two weeks in February.

Defence advocate Danie Dorfling told the magistrate he would be available again after that in mid-June but suggested the week of 22-26 June be possibly set down for the case.

On 6 January last year Motata crashed his Jaguar car into the perimeter wall of a Hurlingham property, allegedly while drunk.

The trial — in which he faces charges of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, with an alternate charge of driving with an excess of alcohol in his blood or reckless or negligent driving as well as a charge of defeating the ends of justice with an alternate charge of resisting arrest — was originally meant to begin on 19 July 2007.

However it was postponed on that date to begin in September of that year after Motata changed lawyers and the State said new developments in the case meant it was not ready to proceed at that stage.

The cellphone recordings

Since September last year, the trial has now seen an array of witnesses, and also held a trial within a trial to determine the admissibility of certain evidence.

Earlier this year, five cellphone recordings taken on the scene of the accident were admitted into evidence.

The trial has seen a metro police officer suffering memory loss and another officer making allegations that the prosecution had threatened her.

This led to senior management from the Johannesburg metro police as well as Gauteng public prosecutions director Charin de Beer appearing in court during her testimony.

It even looks possible that there might be further legal action deriving from the Motata case.

De Beer told reporters in October that the metro officer, Paulinah Mashilela, who wrote an affidavit alleging the prosecution had threatened her, had asked for a docket into the matter to be opened.

During her testimony in October, Mashilelah also told the court that the owner of the property Motata crashed into, Richard Baird, called the judge a "drunken k****r".

Baird has since told the Saturday Star in an article published on 18 October, that Mashilela's allegations were "perjury" and that he was consulting with his attorney to work out a "plan for the way forward".

On Tuesday, the trial stopped for the year in the middle of the defence's cross-examination of a forensic analyst involved in blood alcohol sampling.

Analysing the blood sample

Former chief forensic analyst Logan Govender said he was given a South African police 21 letter by the head of the Johannesburg Forensic Chemistry Laboratory, and was told to analyse the sample as part of a batch whose results were needed urgently.

The letter dated 28 February 2007, and addressed as coming from the office of the Parkview station commissioner and signed by a Superintendent Ryan, requests the laboratory's assistance with the case.

"[The] reason being this is the case of Judge Motata whom have (sic) been receiving a lot of media coverage".

The letter went on to say the case needed to be referred to the high court "because a magistrate cannot oversee the case of the judge".

Ryan said in the letter that "speedy assistance" in providing the blood results were needed as the case would be withdrawn if the results were not available by a date in April when court resumed.

Govender said on Tuesday that in the normal course of procedures, although he may see a name on a label attached to a sample, he would not be told the position or stature of a person whose sample he was testing, nor would he be informed of media attention around a case.

He said in some cases, the laboratory would be informed of urgency attached to getting results out by a certain time, in order for the case to remain on the court roll.

A personal first

Responding to Dorfling's questioning, Govender said there was "no need" for him to know the kind of details contained in the Saps 21 letter in order for him to be able to conduct his analysis.

On Monday, Govender said it was not normal as an analyst to receive that letter, and in fact, the one he had received in connection with the Motata case was a personal first.

This week the defence raised queries about several aspects of the procedure used in testing the blood samples for alcohol levels.

Govender testified on Monday that a blood sample he analysed recorded a concentration of alcohol in the blood as 0.2 grams per 100 millilitres, an amount four times over the legal limit.

Before proceedings started on Tuesday, a court interpreter — who told reporters covering the trial that he had his own gospel radio programme — offered to pray for anyone in the court room with headaches, cancer or HIV/Aids.

Sapa