Two sets of digital film footage were taken of Tony Yengeni before and after his arrest for alleged drunk driving.
|||Cape Town - At least two sets of digital film footage were taken of ANC national executive committee member Tony Yengeni before and after his arrest on Sunday night for alleged drunk driving.
Yengeni was arrested near the corner of Somerset and Dixon roads shortly before 11pm and kept in custody at Cape Town Central police station overnight, before being released at about 7.30am on Monday.
He is due to appear in court on March 4 next year.
The City of Cape Town has denied any suggestion its officers targeted Yengeni, pointing out he had been driving erratically and his white Maserati was short of at least one number plate.
He was then tested with a hand-held screening device and found to be “substantially over the limit”, said City of Cape Town mayoral committee member JP Smith.
According to reports, Yengeni’s breath alcohol content reading was 0.69mg of alcohol per 1 000ml of breath.
The legal breath alcohol limit is 0.24mg per 1 000ml, which corresponds to a blood alcohol content of 0.05 percent.
“Officers had spotted the Maserati driving erratically. Also, we take the absence of number plates extremely seriously, (because) if a vehicle doesn’t have a number plate then no other enforcement is possible.
“Officers used a screening device, which showed he was substantially over the limit, which was sufficient basis on which to take him to the Shadow centre in Athlone.”
The Safely Home Anti Drunk-driving Operations War Room is a dedicated facility equipped to process allegedly drunk drivers.
Smith said the centre was used to ensure no extra pressure was put on hospital resources.
“The centre has the added benefit that the entire encounter with the alleged drunk driver is recorded. The entire process is filmed to ensure that no one can make any false claims later.”
Yengeni was subsequently taken to Cape Town Central where he spent the night.
Regarding the Maserati, Smith said officers typically gave alleged drunk drivers the option of phoning a friend to come and remove their vehicle, or otherwise their vehicles were impounded. “Officers can’t very well put an inebriated person back in the driving seat.”
Asked to respond to suggestions on social media that Yengeni had been “targeted”, Smith said: “Fifty-two people were nabbed across the province this weekend. Mr Yengeni is one of 52 – so he certainly wasn’t targeted.
“Anyway, without a number plate it was improbable that officials would have known who he was anyway.
“Video footage will be made available to prove that officers had a probable cause for pulling him over.”
This would come from CCTV cameras that monitor large parts of the city, including Somerset Road.
Smith said the matter was in the hands of police, but he was also confident that metro police could obtain a copy of the blood test, “as a backup”.
This follows a debacle in November 2007, when Yengeni was held for drunk driving after his BMW swerved and landed on the centre island. The case against him then took a dramatic turn when a station commissioner and a junior policeman were alleged to have interfered with the case.
A court later heard that the original case docket had disappeared from a safe and a blood sample was tampered with. At the time, Yengeni was on parole with conditions that he observe a 10pm curfew and not drink alcohol.
He was acquitted of all charges on that occasion.
Cape Argus