Gigaba court case against Hawks ‘stood down’ until Thursday

The high court case in which Nomachule (Norma) Gigaba – the estranged wife of former cabinet minister Malusi Gigaba – is challenging the validity of her arrest by the Hawks has been “stood down”.

Norma was in court on Tuesday morning, after she had filed for an urgent application against the state on the validity of her arrest, while she flagged infringement of her constitutional rights in the process.

Due to the lengthy nature of Norma’s urgent application, the court decided the matter would be heard on Thursday morning.

Norma’s lawyer Victor Nkwashu told the media the court case filed at the high court was different from the criminal case in the Pretoria magistrate’s court.

He said that Norma was challenging the state on the matter of her arrest and seizure of her communication devices with allegations that some information from her devices had been deleted from her phone while it was in the custody of the Hawks.

“The matter was not postponed; it has been stood down because this is a motion court and there is a whole lot of matters to be heard today. A whole lot of them are urgent, just like our matter. The matter seems to be lengthy; that’s why the judge wants to give it priority and asked us if he could hear the matter on Thursday,” he said.

“It should be distinguished between the criminal matter at the magistrate’s court. This matter involves our client’s constitutional rights. She says that her constitutional rights were infringed prior to and during her arrest. A violation of a constitutional right cannot wait for the criminal matter to be heard.”

Nkwashu said a violation of constitutional right if not attended to, had the capability of being “continuous”.

“It cannot happen once and then we must forget about it.”

Nkwashu said they were still awaiting for an expert report detailing what had been deleted from Norma’s device.

She was represented by Dali Mpofu while Dawie Joubert for the state, agreed for the matter to be heard on Thursday.

On Monday morning, the state’s malicious damage to property case against Norma was postponed to 23 October, following her appearance in the Pretoria magistrate’s court.

She was arrested by the Hawks in July, and spent one night at the Brooklyn police station in the east of Pretoria after a warrant of arrest was issued.