Alberton businessman and horse racing analyst Daryl Peense says the shot of whisky he accidentally spilt on President Jacob Zuma is the most expensive drink he’s ever bought.
“It cost me R130 000 excluding travel costs and accommodation,” joked Peense alluding to his costly legal fees.
He spoke yesterday; two days after he was fined R8 000 for “assaulting” Zuma at the Vodacom Durban July last year. Half the fine was suspended for three years.
In her ruling this week, Durban magistrate Gugu Mpikeleli found Peense had indeed assaulted Zuma by trickling his whisky on to Zuma from a balcony at the race course.
Mpikeleli said it was important for South Africans not to lose sight of the fact that Peense’s actions had the potential to cripple democracy in that people could walk up to the president at any time and hurt him.
A perturbed but equally relieved Peense told Independent Newspapers yesterday he wouldn’t harm a fly. “I was labelled a racist. However, some of my closest friends in the horse racing industry are black. I’m nothing like that. I don’t understand how people can pull out that s**t in the era we live in. I thought we had moved on from that s**t. The fact is that I’m an average guy from next door who was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” he said.
The person though, who was the target of his spleen, is the National Director of Public Prosecutions, Menzi Simelane.
“He (Simelane) ruled the National Prosecuting Authority had enough evidence against me. He insisted I stand trial. This is the same guy who was found to be unfit for his job (by the Supreme Court of Appeal) yesterday. I now see why he concluded that I was guilty,” he said.
Peense said he arrived at the Greyville racecourse to find a packed gallery. While there, he ordered a few drinks. By 4pm he and most of the guests were “p**sed, drunk” with everyone jostling and shoving to find the best spot.
With a glass in his hand, an inebriated Peense leant over the balcony for support and was barely able to see what was below. Half of his drink spilt in the process.
“Five minutes later, burly men held me up, cable-tied me and escorted me off the racecourse. No questions were asked. I was later wedged between two BMW X5s before a policeman ordered that I be arrested.”
Peense said he tried explaining to the men identified as Zuma’s bodyguards that it had been an accident.
“I didn’t even know that the President was attending the race, let alone sitting below the balcony. It was unintentional. I didn’t run away.
“I stood there. I was of the view that I had done nothing wrong. That drink was not meant for Zuma or anyone,” he said, adding he felt threatened when a policeman muttered: “This is my president, you white bastard.”
Peense was taken to the Berea police station, sent to the Addington hospital and back to Berea. He was later transferred to the Durban Central police station where he spent most of the Saturday until he was released on R500 bail on Sunday night. He said KwaZulu-Natal’s SAPS assistant commissioner, Pat Brown, had also been called in to interview him.
In court, Peense emphasised that he had done nothing wrong and that Zuma’s bodyguards had admitted that none of the alcohol had touched the president or his entourage.
“How is it then that I am convicted of assaulting the president when I barely touched him? He (Zuma) told my probation officer that he knew nothing about me.”
He described his sentence as both harsh and a biased judgment.
“I was a victim in all of this. I was convicted for assault but I feel as though I was the one assaulted,” he said.
But none of this will stop him from attending the Durban July next year. “It’s my work. It’s what I do. I was there this year and enjoyed myself,” he said. Asked what he would tell Zuma if granted a chance to speak to him, he replied: “I would ask him why he never intervened. Especially when he didn’t see me doing anything to him.”
Peense said his business was dealt a severe blow as a result of the incident and that his mother took strain. He was also declared unfit to possess a firearm and has to attend an alcohol intervention programme. - Pretoria News Weekend