A drink driving offender left the court stunned after revealing that he turned to alcohol when his baby mama allegedly spent E350 meant for baby formula on the popular betting game Aviator.
Sandile Mabuza was convicted of contravening Section 91(5), read together with Section 122(1) of the Road Traffic Act of 2007, after he was found driving under the influence of alcohol.
The court heard that Mabuza had an alcohol concentration of 0.50 milligrammes per 1 000 millilitres in his system. Appearing before Pigg’s Peak Magistrate Temantimandze Shongwe, Mabuza said he survived through piece jobs as a bricklayer, earning around E350 per week.
He told the court that after receiving his wages, he gave the money to his baby mama so she could buy baby formula but she allegedly used it to gamble on Aviator instead.
“I drank alcohol on this day because I was very angry and was trying to calm myself down. I was also avoiding doing something I would regret in future,” he said.
Mabuza apologised to the court, saying he had only consumed a few beers and had learnt from his mistakes.
“If it was not for my baby mama misusing the money I worked hard for, I would not have been arrested for such an offence,” he said.
He was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment or a fine of E800.
NOW READ | PayPal to help create more opportunities – MSMEs
Meanwhile, Muzi Dlamini was also convicted of driving under the influence after he was found with an alcohol concentration of 0.89m/l.
Dlamini was further charged with failing to obey instructions from police officers. He told the court that he did not notice police signalling him to stop and only realised they were following him when he was approaching his home. He was fined E800 or six months’ imprisonment on the first count and E600 or six months on the second count.
In another matter, Sibusiso Khumalo was convicted after recording an alcohol concentration of 1.67mg/l. Khumalo told the court he had only gone out to fetch a friend from work and did not intend to commit the offence.
As a first offender, he pleaded for leniency and was fined E800 or six months in jail.
Mxolisi Tsabedze, who recorded an alcohol concentration of 2.0mg/l, also appeared before the same court.
Tsabedze told the court he had arranged for a sober driver but left him playing pool at a bar while he briefly drove to buy bread, only to be arrested shortly afterwards. He was also fined E800 or six months’ imprisonment.
Sicelo Dlamini was similarly fined E800 or six months in jail after being found with an alcohol concentration of 1.9mg/l.
He told the court he had consumed four 750ml bottles of beer and apologised for breaking the law.
Don Magagula was also convicted after recording an alcohol concentration of 0.69mg/l. He pleaded for leniency, saying he rarely drank and does not normally drink and drive because he understood that it was against the law. He was fined E800 or six months’ imprisonment.
Other offenders convicted of the same offence included Siyabuswa Mkhonto, who recorded (0.43m/l), Sandile Fakudze (1.23mg/l), Mancoba Gama (0.85mg/l), Nathaniel Gule (1.2mg/l), and Melusi Hlophe (0.65mg/l).
They were each sentenced to six months in prison or given the option of paying an E800 fine.
