All the witnesses, the police have lied. I cannot believe anything that they said,” he told the Protea Magistrate’s Court.
Maarohanye was answering questions during cross-examination by prosecutor Raymond Mathenjwa. He said all the police officers, the medical officer who drew his blood at Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital and the man who was with him in the Mini Cooper when the crash happened had all lied to the court.
The prosecutor instead told Maarohanye that he had himself concocted evidence and was telling “obvious lies”.
Maarohanye spent the second day in the witness stand yesterday. He is accused, with Themba Tshabalala, of killing four schoolchildren and critically injuring two others when they drag raced on Mdlalose Street in Protea, Soweto, on March 8 last year while allegedly drunk and high on drugs.
They face four counts of murder, two of attempted murder, driving under the influence and reckless and negligent driving.
Basing part of his cross examination on questions that Tshabalala’s attorney had asked Maarohanye on Monday, Mathenjwa questioned how Maarohanye could maintain that he was in control of the steering wheel of his silver Mini Cooper vehicles and that he kept it going straight.
“How did you hit the kerb if you were controlling the wheel and were going straight?” Mathenjwa asked.
“In your evidence-in-chief yesterday, you said you blacked out when you hit the kerb. You also said you blacked out when you heard the bang (at the rear right of your vehicle) and you looked straight ahead and took control of the wheel.
“You gave two different versions. You say you know for sure that your vehicle never hit anyone until you hit the tree. What I want to show is that the blackout was a concoction. How do you know you never hit the children?
“As the questions pile up, you keep shifting the posts . these are obvious lies. I’ll take it up later in argument,” said Mathenjwa.
He pointed to the fact that witnesses had testified that they saw the silver vehicle, driven by Maarohanye, hit two children. Maarohanye’s attorney had not disputed this but had put a different version to the witness, as he had done on numerous occasions before.
He also questioned why Maarohanye’s defence had not disputed the expert testimony about the marks the Mini Coopers had left on the road surface during the accident.
“Why was it not put to the witnesses that it was possible that those were marks left by your vehicle because you had kept your wheels straight?” Mathenjwa asked.
He asked if Maarohanye had informed his attorney of the blackout and his control of the vehicle.
“How I speak to my lawyer is how I do. You are not going to tell me how to,” replied Maarohanye.
Mathenjwa questioned why Maarohanye said during his bail application that Tshabalala had decided to follow them from Naturena and had now changed to say that another artist had instructed him to follow. He also questioned why the passenger in Maarohanye’s car had never mentioned that Maarohanye had blacked out.
The trial has been postponed to February 20 to 22 2012. February 29 and March 1 and 2 2012 have also been set for the hearing.
