It was a day of wrangling over evidence in the drunk driving trial of Judge Nkola Motata at the Johannesburg magistrate's court on Thursday.
It started with the continued testimony of the state's first witness and owner of the house the judge crashed his Jaguar into, Richard James Baird.
The court adjourned on Thursday afternoon after prosecutor Zaais van Zyl attempted to enter five video clippings recorded by Baird on his cellphone, allegedly of Motata using derogatory language and racial slurs.
Baird used the video function of his cellphone to capture sound but no visuals were recorded.
Van Zyl said the evidence was both relevant and real and added that once the evidence was before the court, it could then be disputed.
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"...but it must still be seen and heard," he said.
He also said there was no "originality prescript" regarding the recordings, after an earlier decision by magistrate Desmond Nair not to allow copies of a note given to Baird by Motata on the night of the accident.
The note contained Motata's contact details, which he volunteered to Baird in order to pay for the damage to his property.
Baird told the court that Motata's handwriting was barely legible, saying it was "very difficult to read and there was repetition and incorrect spelling on it".
However, the original piece of paper could not be located - Baird said it was somewhere on his Mpumalanga farm and he could not find it.
Baird had made copies of the document which the state attempted to use as evidence.
Danie Dorfling for the defence disputed the evidence requesting that the original note be presented to the court.
A quick adjournment for magistrate Nair to decide on the matter ended the debate. Nair halted the state's attempt to use copies of the note, saying they could only be used once a "thorough" and "diligent search" had been conducted for the originals.
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