Pietermaritzburg – An off-duty Road Traffic Inspectorate officer gave the Pietermaritzburg Magistrate’s Court his impression on Friday of the night Maj-Gen Bethuel Mondli Zuma was arrested.

Essop Abubaker was testifying in the case of Zuma, who was to have become Gauteng’s new provincial police commissioner.

Zuma faces charges of failing to stop when ordered to, drunk driving, attempting to escape from custody and defeating the ends of justice.

Abubaker said he was watching television with his wife at their home in Pelham on the night of December 2008, when he heard sirens and went outside to investigate.

He said one of the officers, who he knew, told him they were chasing a suspect who had entered the premises, which they had surrounded.

Another witness, police member Bonginkosi Magwaza, told the court the officers asked for his help catching the man. At the time, he was attending to a complaint in the area.

Magwaza said two women emerged from the house. One of them told the officers it was her house and that the man they were looking for was there to visit her husband.

A while later, Zuma emerged from the house.

Magwaza will be cross-examined when the case resumes on Monday.

Sapa