A 25-year-old motorist will spend three days in custody after repeatedly failing to tell the court whether he intends to plead guilty or not to charges of drink-driving and driving without a valid driver’s licence.
Nhlanhla Yokhi Malinga was handed the sentence by Magistrate Sebenzile Ndlela-Kunene at the Manzini Magistrate’s Court yesterday after two attempts to obtain a clear plea from him proved unsuccessful.
The matter stems from his arrest on Sunday near Bosco along the Southern Distributor road in the Manzini region, where he was allegedly found driving a Hyundai Getz sedan. Malinga faced two charges of contravening the Road Traffic Act 6 of 2007, with the first relating to driving under the influence.
According to the charge sheet, he allegedly drove the vehicle while intoxicated and recorded a breathalyser reading of 0.74 milligrams per litre (mg/l), double the legally prescribed limit of 0.37mg/l.
The charge sheet further states that he had a strong smell of liquor emanating from his mouth.
On the second count, Malinga was accused of driving the vehicle on a public road without being licensed to do so. However, when the charges were put to him and he was asked to plead to the first count, Malinga appeared uncertain, failing to give the court a definite answer.
He admitted that he had consumed alcohol and was intoxicated on the day in question but disputed the reading contained in the charge sheet. He maintained that the breathalyser had registered 0.73mg/l rather than 0.74mg/l.
His uncertainty persisted when he was asked to plead to the second count.
Instead of indicating whether he admitted or denied the charge, Malinga said he had his driver’s licence inside the vehicle when he was arrested but was allegedly not given an opportunity to produce it. He claimed that the police pounced on him, removed the key from the ignition and dragged him out of the vehicle before he could reach into the cabin to retrieve the document. With Malinga still unable to provide clear pleas to the charges, Magistrate Ndlela-Kunene temporarily stood the matter down and instructed him to leave the accused’s dock.
The court proceeded to deal with other cases before he was recalled later in the day for another opportunity to indicate how he intended to plead.
However, the second attempt yielded the same result, with Malinga once again failing to give a definite response.
This saw the magistrate order that he be taken into custody until tomorrow. In issuing the order, Ndlela-Kunene explained that the additional time was intended to give Malinga an opportunity to carefully consider how he wished to plead to the charges. He was subsequently taken into custody.
