Mngoma, who is the estranged wife of former Cabinet minister Malusi Gigaba, approached the courts to challenge the validity of her arrest.
FILE: Norma Mngoma appears before the Pretoria Magistrates Court on 14 September 2020 after she was arrested in July on charges of malicious damage to property and crimen injuria. Picture: Abigail Javier/EWN.
JOHANNESBURG – Lawyers for Norma Mngoma on Thursday accused the Hawks of gross invasion of her privacy when they seized her gadgets.
Mngoma, who is the estranged wife of former Cabinet minister Malusi Gigaba, approached the courts to challenge the validity of her arrest.
She was apprehended by the Hawks in July and her gadgets confiscated after she allegedly damaged a car that was in her husband’s possession.
In her affidavit, Mngoma detailed how she was forced to hand over her gadgets because of the crimen injuria case against her.
She said that the Hawks officials refused to let her out of sight, following her into the bedroom and waiting outside the cubicle door as she used the bathroom.
Her representative, Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, said that they had no reason to do this.
“The idea that she made all of that up is totally improbable. Particularly if you look at the way that the denials are couched, they are not straight denials which actually rebut and put alternative versions, these are bad denials which can be rejected on paper,” Ngcukaitobi said.
Mngoma’s lawyers argued that she had been going through persistent trauma and the effects of the harassment by the Hawks, which was witnessed by her young sons.
