Judge Nkola Motata knows his fate, says chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng

TimesLIVE

7 years ago

The Judicial Conduct Tribunal has finalised the case against disgraced retired judge Nkola Motata and is expected to make public its ruling soon.

The Judicial Conduct Tribunal has finalised the matter involving retired judge Nkola Motata who went on a racist rant after crashing his car into a wall while driving drunk.
Image: Gallo Images/Sowetan/Veli Nhlapo

This was revealed by chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng during an interview on eNCA on Wednesday night.

“We resolved the Motata matter today. The announcement will definitely be made in the course of this week. We are just tidying up one or two things. Where he sits, he knows the outcome, but that one (that case) has been finalised,” said Mogoeng.

The tribunal is to announce whether, despite his retirement, Motata will keep the status of judge and continue to receive his lifelong benefits, or be stripped of both.

The announcement will put to bed a more than decade-long scandal which saw Motata fall from grace after he was recorded swearing at onlookers after he crashed his Jaguar into a wall while drunk.

The tribunal had, in 2018, found that Motata’s conduct at the scene of the accident in January 2007 in Johannesburg, and the remarks he made at the time, were racist and prejudicial to the impartiality and dignity of the courts.

He was later convicted of drunk driving.

Motata, TimesLIVE reported, was granted a leave of absence after the accident. He did not return to the bench.

Motata retired last year and is still receiving all the benefits of retired judges‚ including a salary for life.

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