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The elite investigative unit, the Hawks, keep their word that there was nothing illegal in the June arrest of the estranged wife of former Cabinet Minister Malusi Gigaba, Norma Mngoma (formally Gigaba).
Mngoma appeared briefly in Pretoria Magistrates Court on Monday after her husband arrested her in June, and her case was postponed.
The TI businesswoman was arrested on charges of criminal injury and malicious damage to property, after allegedly vandalizing a luxury car belonging to a friend of Gigaba. Since then, Mngoma has had her home raided and her electronic devices seized by the Hawks, in a move she alleged was illegal.
In September, shortly after his arrest, Mngoma went to the Pretoria High Court to have his arrest declared illegal. In that matter, she argues that her arrest was an orchestrated conspiracy to harass and intimidate her in order to gain access to her devices to remove certain information. She claims that after obtaining her devices, messages and images were indeed deleted from one of them, although the Hawks have insisted that there was nothing illegal in their raid.
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Speaking about Mngoma’s conspiracy allegations, Mulaudzi says that what he claims would not make sense.
“That’s your own claim and when it comes to device seizures we wouldn’t even go that far, what’s the point? What purpose would it serve? But as I say, let the courts decide.
“For our part, we are clear from the beginning that if she has a problem, she should go to court for help. As far as we are concerned, everything was done legally and, as such, we still maintain that it was done within the limits of the law, ”Mulaudzi said.
With bail of 5,000 rand since June, Mngoma not only removed her husband’s last name after the apparent dispute, but claimed that her arrest and the raid on her property are an attempt to intimidate her following an alleged threat to her life.
According to his lawyer, Victor Nkwatshu, the case has been postponed until October 11, to allow the state to give a prominent disclosure to Mngoma’s defense team and to allow the high court proceedings to conclude.
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