Durban - Fired Umlazi magistrate Michael Masinga urged the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Tuesday to scrap his attempted murder conviction and 10-year sentence - for hitting his then wife with the blunt side of an axe on her head - on an irregularity.
He argued that a magistrate or prosecutor could not be prosecuted without the written authorisation of the director of public prosecutions. He was prosecuted without the requirements having been met.
Masinga’s trial began in the Durban Regional Court in November 2010. He was sentenced in January 2012.
Magistrate Anand Maharaj found that he had not only hit Nompumelelo Masinga on the head with an axe, but also kicked her, called her a dog and shouted, “Aren’t you dead yet?” at the family’s home in Woodlands, Durban, in March 2009. The couple had three children together.
The couple were living separate lives. That evening, Masinga brought home a woman and Nompumelelo became angry. She and her daughter, Gugu, testified that they had gone back to the house when Masinga emerged with his axe and attacked Nompumelelo.
He denied this, saying Nompumelelo and his daughters had threatened to “kill the prostitute”.
On Tuesday, prosecutor Johan du Toit said the senior public prosecutor at the Durban court had acted on a verbal authorisation from the then acting director of public prosecutions, who could not recall this.
The Mercury