Durban - A former Durban magistrate, who swore to uphold the law, may soon be placed behind bars after his bid to overturn his conviction for the attempted murder of his wife was dismissed in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Thursday.
Michael Masinga, who called his estranged wife “a dog” and attacked her with an axe, is now facing a 10-year prison sentence.
The magistrate, who presided over cases in the Umlazi Magistrate’s Court, was convicted in 2011 of the attempted murder of Nompumelelo Princess Masinga at their Woodlands, Durban, home.
The State proved Masinga attacked Nompumelelo with the blunt side of an axe and struck her three times on the head.
The argument was sparked when Masinga, who had been living in an outbuilding at the property, brought home another woman.
Evidence led during the trial was that Masinga attacked Nompumelelo and shouted: “Aren’t you dead yet?” while he was hitting her with the axe.
Masinga denied the allegations and claimed that his wife and daughter had lied during their testimony.
Lisa Vetten, a research associate at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, who has done extensive research on violence against women, said magistrates and police officers should not be given special treatment before the courts.
“These are the people who are meant to uphold the law, yet they commit crimes against their partners. I think we do need a harder line to be taken against them,” she said.
Vetten said that women abusers with legal know-how often abused the court process.
“They know how the criminal justice system works so they will try to manipulate, harass or seek loopholes,” she said.
In Masinga’s case, he brought an application stating that his conviction was flawed because there was no written authorisation from the director of public prosecutions to prosecute him for attempted murder.
Masinga argued that the written authorisation was required by the National Prosecution Authority’s public policy because he was a magistrate.
The trial prosecutor, Nonhlanhla Dlamini, claimed that verbal authorisation was given to her by the then acting DPP, Simphiwe Mlotshwa.
Pietermaritzburg High Court Judge Johan Ploos van Amstel, with Judge Philip Nkosi concurring, agreed that the failure to get written authority was an “irregularity”, but that it did not amount to a “failure of justice”.
Judge Van Amstel said Dlamini’s version that she got verbal authorisation could not be disputed.
He dismissed Masinga’s argument that Dlamini was not to be believed and that the DPP may have decided to prosecute him on a lesser charge.
“This was not a case where a disgruntled litigant had laid a frivolous charge against a magistrate and the DPP had not authorised the prosecution. It was a case where a husband had viciously attacked his wife with an axe, inflicted serious injuries to her head and uttered words which indicated that he wanted to kill her. It can safely be accepted that the DPP who authorised the prosecution orally would have also done so in writing.”
Masinga abandoned an appeal against his conviction and sentence, and now his only option to stay out of jail is to attempt to get his appeal reinstated or petition the chief justice for leave to appeal.
The Mercury