Monday, November 23, 2009

Who's stuffing around with McBride's brakes?


It seems Robert McBride has not yet exhausted every possible way to wangle his way out of a drunk driving conviction.
So far he has succeeded in having his trial stalled for years, with raging controversies along the way. This morning 702 began blasting forth with yet another new revelation: it now seems that the boss pranged his state car, not because he was driving it too fast after downing one too many at the office Christmas party in 2006 but because *shock, horror, gasp!* someone was trying to assasinate him.
Now McBride, who spent some time on death row before our laws changed and the new government decided it was better to give him the Ekhuruleni traffic chief job than hang him, is hardly your average victim. I once interviewed a death row warden who is still haunted by nightmares of the things he saw and did back then, and who was one of the guys who had to oversee McBride. He is a huge guy who played rugby and got his prison job based on his massively intimidating presence. When I asked him about McBride he clammed up and wept in terror. So this is seriously NOT the kind of man you annoy unnecessarily or accidentally don't do the job properly if you try and bump him off.
So anyway, according to 702's big investigation some idiot has been tooling around with the brakes on McBrides car. A few times apparently, without the having so much as accidentally smacked into his own garage door. Imagine!
It's yet another bend in the road to McBride's drunk driving trial set down for March next year. It's going to be an epic ride, people! If you think about it, so much has happened already.
First our esteemed traffic chief tried to claim that the crash happened because he was hypoglycaemic and his whacked out sugar levels made him do it. But the Scorpions (back in the day when they existed *sigh*) bust him and now the doctor who signed off that little report is wishing he hadn't.
Then the dudes who made up his clean-up team and were going to testify as to his innocence started fighting and so he fired them all and locked them out of theie offices.
Then there was a mysterious break in at the Joburg High Court, only one office was hit and dockets relating to the - surprise, surprise - McBride case were taken. Fortunately the guy whose office got robbed was a sussed character and had copies of everything.
Last month there was a strange fire at the Pretoria Magistrate's Court and then a day later a second one broke out in - yes, you got it - the courtroom where McBride was supposed to stand trial.
And now today - we have the sudden leaking of an "explosive" police report, complete with car service invoices to prove that the brake pads on McBrides car were changed, has made it clear that someone has all along been out to get McBride. Because he was investigating a dodgy property deal and they wanted him out of the picture.
There's also another arb statement by a guy they have located who witnessed the crash and says McBride did not roll his car without reason that night - a menacing yellow Mazda caused him to swerve and lose control. So who might this witness be? Ah, coincidence indeed - a traffic cop from McBride's office who happened to be passing by at that very moment on his way home from visiting mates in Harties. Only when he went to help the driver did he suddenly notice it was his traffic chief.
It remains clear as mud why all of this explosive stuff is only coming out now.
I cannot describe how difficult it was to write that story up objectively for print!!
I cracked up when John Robbie named the assassin on air: Johnny Walker!

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Afrigator