Gauteng cop's case postponed

Lt-Gen Bethuel Mondli Zuma, who was to have become Gauteng's new provincial police commissioner, appeared briefly in the Pietermaritzburg Magistrate's Court on Tuesday.

 

Zuma, 46, faces four counts for allegedly trying to evade a roving anti-alcohol patrol in 2008. National police commissioner Riah Phiyega announced Zuma's appointment as Gauteng police commissioner on August 31, but withdrew it when it emerged that he had a case pending against him. The charges Zuma faces are failing to stop when ordered, drunk driving, attempting to escape from custody, and defeating the ends of justice. He is also alleged to have prevented traffic officers from taking a blood sample to test for alcohol and to have locked himself in a house for two hours. The case was adjourned to Wednesday because trial magistrate Riad Abrahams was on a course.

 

Zuma has argued that he ignored the patrol unit's orders to stop because he feared that the uniformed person who signalled him to stop was a bogus officer.As he sped away, traffic officers followed him to a house where he was arrested and breathalysed. The breathalyser reading was 0.65, three times over the legal alcohol limit. He was released on bail of R500. Zuma, who was attached to the police staff at OR Tambo International Airport at the time, was in Pietermaritzburg on a project when he was arrested. At the time Zuma, who joined the police service in 1994, was driving an unmarked state vehicle. Phiyega has said she was not aware of the criminal investigation against Zuma. He is not related to President Jacob Zuma.

                 

-Sapa