Staff Reporter.
Police minister Bheki Cele and the Hawks have applied to appeal a high court judgment that found that Nomachule Norma Mngoma had been unlawfully arrested.
Mngoma was arrested in July last year after allegedly damaging a Mercedes-Benz G Wagon — that was being driven by her husband, former finance minister Malusi Gigaba — by repeatedly scratching it with a vegetable slicer.
There was also an allegation, leading to a charge of crimen injuria, that she had sent an insulting text message to a friend of Malusi’s.
But Pretoria judge Cassim Sardiwalla said that the Hawks officers involved had “abused their powers and position” in the law-enforcement agency. The aim was “presumably to avenge a wrong or perceived wrong” on the part of Gigaba.
It was not for any lawful purpose, he said.
The court order declared that her arrest — the decision to apply for it and its execution — was unlawful. It also declared that the decision to confiscate her cellphones and laptops was unlawful and ordered the Hawks to return all the information unlawfully downloaded from them.
But in an application for leave to appeal, Cele and the Hawks say that Sardiwalla “misdirected” himself when he found that Mngoma’s application was urgent since she was already out on bail.
“The application was not urgent, as the warrant of arrest was already obtained and executed as far back as 30 and 31 July 2020 respectively, and all the electronic equipment were already returned on 5 August 2020,” said the application.
The application added that all the issues Mngoma had raised in her case should have been decided by the court that was hearing her criminal trial, and not separately in the high court.
Mngoma last appeared in the Pretoria magistrate’s court on February 12, the day after Sardiwalla’s judgment was delivered. The case was postponed by magistrate Thandi Theledi to March 26.