A warrant for the arrest of a senior Western Cape government official was authorised on Friday when he failed to appear in court on a charge of possession of the drug tik.
Cape Town magistrate Nasha Banwari directed the warrant be stayed until July 3, when David McNamara, 48, the provincial community development director, was scheduled to make his eighth court appearance.
His lawyer William Booth told the court McNamara was due for orthopaedic surgery on Saturday, and that the defence had informed the prosecuting authorities earlier in the week that circumstances prevented McNamara's appearance on Friday.
Banwari said the warrant would be executed if McNamara failed to appear in court again on July 3.
McNamara, of Waterloo Road, Wynberg, was arrested on June 28
last year, in the Cape Town CBD, allegedly in possession of a broken bottle neck, used as a pipe to inhale the fumes of burning the drug tik (crystal methamphetamine), and seven plastic bags containing tik residue.
The magistrate declared his R500 bail provisionally forfeited to the State, and said it would be finally forfeited if McNamara failed to attend the July 3 proceedings.
News of McNamara's arrest and court appearances only surfaced in February, when provincial community development MEC, Albert Fritz, announced that McNamara had been placed on immediate leave, pending internal proceedings.
The department's special programmes unit, involved in combating drug abuse, was part of McNamara's portfolio. - Sapa