Pretoria - Norma Mngoma will be suing the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations (Hawks) after all charges against her were dropped in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Friday.
Mngoma, the wife of former Cabinet minister Malusi Gigaba, was appearing in court on Friday on charges of malicious damage to property and crimen injuria.
During her brief appearance, the state indicated that it was withdrawing all the charges against her.
She was arrested by the Hawks in July for allegedly damaging a Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon worth more than R3 million.
She had also initially faced charges for domestic violence and assault for allegedly assaulting her husband. However, those charges were subsequently excluded.
In February, the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, ruled that her arrest by the Hawks was unlawful.
Mngoma appealed to the high court challenging her arrest on the basis that it was an orchestrated scheme to intimidate and bully her and to ultimately, gain unlawful access to her gadgets and to delete specific information.
She said her arrest was no more than a campaign to tarnish her good name and reputation for nefarious reasons.
The court ruled that the arrest by the Hawks was "unlawful" and an "abuse of power" by her husband, in an attempt to intimidate her.
Speaking outside court after her appearance, Mngoma said she was so happy and excited as it had been a long journey.
“The past eight months, going through this process which was unfair and planned to humiliate me and destroy me and my image, was difficult.”
Her attorney Eric Mabuza indicated that they were finalising the court papers so she could sue the state and also for her to get her dignity back.
Mabuza said they were pleased that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) had followed common sense that the charges against Mngoma had no basis.
NPA regional spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana said the they decided to provisionally withdraw the charges against Mngoma in recognition of the high court judgement setting aside her arrest.
Mahanjana said the decision whether or not to reinstate the matter would depend on the consideration of further representations by the former minister's wife.
Pretoria News