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Norma Gigaba reacts inside the North Gauteng Superior Court.
Phill Magakoe, Gallo Images
- Norma Mngoma was arrested by the Hawks last July on charges of willful damage to property and criminal injury.
- Her lawyer, lawyer Dali Mpofu, argued that another reason for her arrest was to “punish” her for daring to confront her husband, Malusi Gigaba.
- The Superior Court also ruled that the information on their electronic devices be restored.
The Gauteng High Court in Pretoria has ruled that Norma Mngoma’s arrest warrant and her execution by the Hawks was illegal.
Judge Cassim Sardiwalla, in a lengthy sentence handed down on Thursday, issued the following order:
- Norma Mngoma’s request is granted urgently.
- The decision to apply for the arrest warrant is illegal.
- The decision of Hawks officials to execute the arrest warrant is illegal.
In addition, the court ordered that the confiscation of their information and communications technology equipment was illegal and, as a result, the Hawks were ordered to restore all information that was illegally removed from their equipment.
Finally, the Hawks were ordered to return the information that was downloaded from their electronic devices.
This comes after Mngoma challenged her arrest by the Hawks in High Court, arguing that it was nothing more than a “favor to her husband,” former Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba.
The court previously heard that, in addition to claiming that Mngoma was arrested as part of an illegal plan by the Hawks to seize her devices and remove material from them, her attorney Dali Mpofu argued that “another motive could have been to punish [her]”or” teach him a lesson “for daring to stand up to him and his questionable” friends who apparently aided and incited his nefarious activities across the board, “News24 reported.
Meanwhile, the Hawks’ defender, Dawie Joubert, argued that “there was no justification” for her to go to an urgent civil court to challenge the criminal case pending against her, before the Pretoria Magistrates Court.
The ex-wife of the former minister was arrested by the Hawks in July 2020 on charges of malicious damage to property and crime of injury.
It is unclear how this decision would affect his prosecution in the magistrates court. You must return to said court on Friday.
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