The Norma Gigaba legal debacle

Nomachule “Norma” Gigaba (neé Mngoma), the wife of former finance minister Malusi Gigaba, plans to sue the Hawks following an unlawful arrest and an eight-month-long legal debacle following her arrest in July 2020.

She was arrested at her home in Waterkloof in the east of Pretoria in front of her children after she was accused of damaging a Mercedes Benz G-Wagon belonging to her husband’s friend.

She was detained for one night at Brooklyn police station before applying for bail.

On 26 March, Norma appeared in the Pretoria magistrate’s court facing charges of crimen injuria and malicious damage to property.

She gained victory in the legal bid to have the charges against her dropped after the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) withdrew the case against her.

NPA spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana said they decided to provisionally withdraw the charges in recognition of the Gauteng North High Court judgement that her arrest was unlawful and an act of abuse of power influenced by her soon to be ex-husband, ANC national executive member Malusi.

Attorney Eric Mabuza, part of Norma’s legal team, said they were finalising the process to sue the Hawks for unlawful arrest.

“We will issue summons against the Hawks. You can imagine the trauma our client suffered from this and spending a night in jail.

“This legal debacle has been ongoing for months now and her career prospects and children have been affected.”

Norma said she was happy about the NPA’s decision adding that she and her husband were going through a divorce.

She said her fight against the Hawks has been an emotional journey that had tainted her image.

Norma said she had not yet received information that was retrieved from her devices when she was arrested.

“When I fought I did not stand up for myself, but for all women who have gone through this,” she said.

“The reason I was arrested was so he (Malusi) can get access to my gadgets to get information relating to state capture. He tried to break me but I am still standing.”

The decision comes as NPA has been “studying” for over a month, the submissions made by Norma’s legal representatives Dali Mpofu and Tembeka Gcukaitobi to drop charges against her as they believed her prosecution after an unlawful arrest would be “fruits of a poisoned tree”.

“There is no way that the prosecution could survive the ties of abuse that was identified by the high court in her arrest,” Mabuza said.

“The people who arrested her fraudulently as found by the high court, cannot be used as witnesses of this court.”

Mpofu previously argued in court that Norma’s Friday arrest was made with intentions to make her stay at the holding cells for the whole weekend. He described it as “apartheid-style” as the police had attained the warrant of arrest on a Thursday but arrested her on a Friday.

While the Hawks had not yet announced if they would appeal the high court judgement, their legal representatives advocate Dawie Joubert previously argued the case fell on the lap of the investigative body as they were tasked with investigating a case of conspiracy to murder Malusi.

Joubert argued that the warrant for Norma’s arrest was lawful and was issued by a magistrate and that Norma also admitted to the charges pressed against her.

He said Mpumalanga Hawks (Captain Kenneth Mavuso and Sergeant Norman Ndabambi) were involved in a Pretoria case because they investigated national crimes and had the right to probe the matter.

Large parts of the submissions to have criminal charges dropped made by Norma’s lawyers hung onto the judgment of the high court.

The judgment by Judge Cassim Sardiwalla read: “I am satisfied that the evidence before me demonstrate that the fourth and fifth respondents (Hawks) acted with malice, in that their actions appeared to have been motivated by an abuse of power by a former minister’.’

On claims that they were investigating a case of conspiracy to murder against Malusi, Sardiwalla rejected these claims and said there was no evidence linking Norma to an investigation conducted regarding a conspiracy to commit murder.

“There is no clear evidence of this in the docket and takes the matter no further. It is clear that this is a domestic dispute between two prominent members of society, however, the offences are not deserving high priority of the Hawks.

“The involvement of the Hawks itself speaks to the abuse of power by Mr Gigaba as a former minister in using the state administration for his benefit to intimidate his wife in a domestic dispute,’’ he said.