The case of a senior municipal official who has pleaded not guilty to drunk driving charges is on hold as the court awaits crucial evidence.
The case of a senior municipal official who has pleaded not guilty to drunk driving charges is on hold as the court awaits crucial evidence.
Thabiso Klaas, Makana Municipality's director of corporate services, was arrested for allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol after being stopped at a roadblock in Albany Road in July 2009. He appeared in the Grahamstown Magistrate's Court on Wednesday 1 September.
East London-based Warrant Officer Timothy Stockton told the court that he had been conducting special duties in Grahamstown on the night of Klaas's arrest.
Stockton testified that he had stopped Klaas at the road block and that he had been unable to produce a driver's license on request.
Stockton said he could smell liquor on Klaas’s breath, and so summoned a local traffic officer to conduct a breathalyser test. "Traffic officer Terrence Bafo conducted the first test and the second test was conducted after five minutes," Stockton said.
Stockton arrested Klaas on suspicion of drunk driving and took him to the Grahamstown police station, where he was detained.
But Klaas’s attorney Danile Mili suggested that the test might have been faulty, after querying why it was necessary to conduct two breathalyser tests.
Stockton explained that the traffic officers at the scene told him that they always did two tests.
Mili rejected Stockton's explanation.
“The reason you conducted the second test is because you were not sure whether the machine was working properly or not,” Mili said.
After cross-examination, state prosecutor Lungile Msutu asked the court to postpone the case because Bafo was out of town and so could not testify to validate Stockton’s statement.
Magistrate Nomnikelo Jebese postponed the case to 4 October.
Klaas exercised his right to remain silent by giving no plea explanation.
