Jailed Andile Lungisa to bring urgent bail application

Jailed African National Congress (ANC) councillor Andile Lungisa is expected to bring an urgent application for bail in the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court. File picture: Raahil Sain/ANA

Jailed African National Congress (ANC) councillor Andile Lungisa is expected to bring an urgent application for bail in the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court. File picture: Raahil Sain/ANA

Published May 24, 2018

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Port Elizabeth - Jailed African National Congress (ANC) councillor Andile Lungisa is expected to bring an urgent application for bail in the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court on Thursday. 

Lungisa’s new lawyer Alwyn Griebenow has since lodged a petition in the Port Elizabeth High Court after leave to appeal Lungisa’s conviction and sentence was dismissed by Magistrate Morne Cannon. 

Last month, Lungisa was found guilty of intentionally smashing a glass jug over the head of former mayoral committee member for transport, Rano Kayser, during a chaotic 2016 Nelson Mandela Bay council meeting.

He was sentenced to an effective two years behind bars.

Evidence presented before court included a video taken by Democratic Alliance (DA) councillor Renaldo Gouws, which showed how Lungisa slammed the jug over Kayser’s head, before he fled and how Kayser fell backwards and landed on the floor.

Cannon said the video evidence showed that there was no reason for Lungisa to hit Kayser, thereby dismissing Lungisa’s self-defence claim.

The court found that Lungisa lacked genuine remorse and was a poor witness, adapting his version as he went along. 

Kayser sustained multiple lacerations to his head and neck with pictures showing him drenched in blood. Since the incident Kayser said he suffered from short term memory loss and was told that he was lucky to be alive. 

Lungisa’s co-accused ANC councillor Gamalihleli Maqula was acquitted on charges of assault to cause grievous bodily harm. 

Maqula was accused of stabbing council chief whip Werner Senekal with a sharp object during the chaotic council meeting.  

African News Agency/ANA

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