Johannesburg - An e-toll gantry may play a crucial role in determining culpability in the fatal accident involving President Jacob Zuma’s son Duduzane Zuma.
Zuma and taxi driver Jabu Dlamini are the subjects of an inquest to determine if either was criminally responsible for the accident in February in which Phumzile Dube was thrust out of the taxi’s passenger window and killed.
The inquest’s evidence leader, Yusuf Baba, said on Monday he would prove – using an e-toll gantry close to the accident scene and four speed cameras – that Duduzane was speeding on the night he was involved in the accident that killed Dube.
The novel use of the gantry as well as the cameras would enable the inquest to determine Duduzane’s average speed on the night, and prove that he was speeding the night he crashed into the back of a minibus taxi, resulting in the death of the young mother.
Yesterday, Duduzane took the stand at the inquest in the Randburg Magistrate’s Court
for the first time and faced allegations that he was driving negligently.
He said he had been driving in the fast lane on the M1 South when he hit a puddle of water near the Grayston Drive off-ramp that caused him to lose control of his silver Porsche 911. After aquaplaning and spinning across the road, he hit the back of Dlamini’s taxi, sending it into the steel barrier next to the slow lane.
Baba said Zuma had overtaken another car just before losing control of the Porsche.
While Zuma was unable to tell the court exactly the speed he had been driving – estimating between 90km/h and 100 km/h – he admitted that he must have increased his speed to overtake the nearby vehicle. He was also unable to answer how he had avoided crashing into the car he had just overtaken.
“Are you willing to concede you were speeding, or must the State prove it?” Baba asked.
Zuma stood firm that he was not speeding, leading to Baba indicating he was in the process of getting data from the nearby e-toll gantry and traffic cameras.
Baba also entered the Porsche 911 safety manual into evidence. He said the car was equipped with a Porsche stability management unit that would have corrected the path of the vehicle in the event of aquaplaning.
Baba said it would have activated only if Zuma had applied his brakes, which he would have done if he was speeding.
“I hope you’re getting royalties from Porsche SA,” Zuma retorted.
He denied braking after he had hit the water.
Baba also argued that because of the weight of the minibus taxi, which was carrying 14 people, Duduzane must have hit it with force that could only be accumulated at a high speed.
Throughout proceedings over the past week, the evidence leader has been attempting to disprove Zuma’s claim that a large pool of water had collected on the highway, leading to the accident.
On Monday, Baba insisted on an in loco inspection of the freeway, to determine whether it was on an incline or a decline.
Magistrate Lalita Chetty and the numerous lawyers involved in the inquest visited the scene on Monday afternoon.
The road on which the crash took place appeared flat and came after a decline.
Duduzane’s lawyer, Gary Mazaham, denied claims that his client was speeding, saying the weather conditions and the lower suspension of the Porsche had all contributed to Zuma’s loss of control of the car.
He said it would have been difficult for Zuma to see the puddle of water because the rainfall had increased in intensity by the time he had arrived near the Grayston off-ramp.
Under cross-examination by Dlamini’s lawyer Sabelo Nobangule, Zuma told the inquest how deeply he had been upset by the crash. “It has affected me, it’s not a nice thing to see. I feel for the people who’ve been affected,” he said.