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Former Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba and his wife, Norma.
Images of Frennie Shivhambu / Gallo
- Norma Gigaba has approached the Superior Court, claiming that her arrest by the Hawks was illegal and unconstitutional.
- The Hawks have defended their actions, saying Gigaba was arrested after a magistrate issued a warrant.
- Norma Gigaba claims that her husband, former minister Malusi Gigaba, was behind the arrest to “teach her a lesson.”
Norma Gigaba’s attorneys have argued that her arrest by the Hawks for intentional damage to property and criminal injury was nothing more than a “favor to her husband,” former Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba.
In addition to stating that Norma Gigaba was arrested as part of an illegal plan by the Hawks to seize their devices and remove material from them, their defender Dali Mpofu argued that “another motive could have been to punish [Norma Gigaba]”or” teach him a lesson “for daring to confront him and his questionable” friends who apparently helped and incited his nefarious activities in all areas “.
“Whatever the true motives, what is clear is that the arrest and its aftermath were clearly illegal and unconstitutional and, consequently, must be declared as such.”
Norma Gigaba’s attorneys have also questioned why Police Minister Bheki Cele had not provided any formal notification that he aligned with the Hawks’ defense of their conduct in the Norma Gigaba case, saying that it clearly showed that he had “distanced himself” from the saga. .
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Mpofu and defender Tembeka Ngcukaitobi on Thursday urged the Pretoria High Court to rule that the Hawks’ involvement in what they claimed was a “domestic dispute” was illegal and that “their involvement in this case must cease.”
Judge Cassim Sardiwalla reserved his ruling on the case.
‘Without justification’
Hawks defender Dawie Joubert previously argued that Norma Gigaba “had no justification” to go to an urgent civil court to challenge the criminal case against her, which was postponed until next month by the Pretoria Magistrates Court on Monday.
“On what basis could this plaintiff persuade this court that he cannot obtain redress in the normal course?” Joubert asked.
He stressed that if Norma Gigaba claimed she had been illegally arrested and prosecuted, she could file a civil lawsuit against the Hawks. According to Joubert, Norma Gigaba was arrested with a “judicial order issued by a magistrate.”
Joubert further claimed that Norma Gigaba had admitted in warning statements, which she claimed were illegally obtained, that she had vandalized a R3 million black Mercedes-Benz G63 AMG “G-Wagon” during a dispute with her husband. She also admitted that she had sent an insulting WhatsApp message to her friend Peterson Siyaya and suggested that she would defend her conduct on the grounds that it was “provoked.”
This was not necessarily a valid defense, Joubert added.
Mpofu and Ngcukaitobi, however, argued that the arrest of Norma Gigaba by the Hawks, an elite unit mandated to investigate priority crimes, was illegal and invalid because the Hawks were not mandated to investigate minor offenses such as a crime of injury. or malicious damage to property.
Set aside
As a result, they said, his prosecution “at the behest of the Hawks” must also be set aside.
Mpofu further argued that the Hawks had actively avoided responding to Norma Gigaba’s claims that she had been illegally arrested and instead focused on arguing that her case was not urgent and should not be decided by the Superior Court.
“This is so because there cannot be a sustainable defense on the merits in light of the serious violations involved,” he said.
Norma Gigaba alleged that she was arrested and held in Brooklyn police cells overnight after she threatened to take legal action against the Hawks for seizing their devices, including their phones and laptop.
Mpumalanga Hawks captain Kenneth Mavuso claimed that the elite unit arrested Norma Gigaba because they were told these charges were potentially related to an alleged conspiracy to assassinate her husband.
“This is part of the unfounded innuendo that the Hawks have been pushing in the media as part of their false narrative to seek, after the event, to justify their illegal and corrupt participation in an internal dispute that falls outside their constitutional mandate and jurisdiction, “stated Norma Gigaba in response to those claims.
“My rights in this regard alone deserve urgent and immediate vindication. I cannot be expected to be unjustly stigmatized for being involved in an (imaginary) conspiracy to murder the father of my own children.”
Mavuso had also claimed that the Hawks requested an arrest warrant against her due to the “high value” of the vehicle she was accused of vandalizing, an argument she said was “legally untenable.”
