These are the cases that kept our eyes on SA’s courts in 2021

Thousands of criminals passed through South Africa’s courts in 2021.

The most high-profile person who found himself in Lady Justice’s firing line was former president Jacob Zuma. In June, the Constitutional Court found him guilty of contempt over his refusal to take the stand at the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, chaired by then Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, and sentenced him to 15 months behind bars.

He was locked up at the Estcourt correctional centre a week later, which gave way to violent unrest in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng in the days that followed. Two months later, he was granted medical parole, but that was recently set aside by the High Court in Johannesburg.

He and the national commissioner of correctional services have been granted leave to appeal this decision before the Supreme Court of Appeal.

ALSO READ: Zuma wins battle but the war is still not over

Another high-profile case was that of former Tembisa constable Rosemary Ndlovu for having six of her relatives killed and plotting the murders of six more so she could cash in on their insurance.

She became a household name, oscillating from posing happily for members of the media – even telling journalists, “I woke up early to put on make-up for you” – to flashing her buttocks at them, to weeping inconsolably as she protested her innocence.

Arrested in 2018, in October, she was found guilty of multiple counts of murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and incitement to commit murder. Last month, she was sentenced to life in prison.

The brutal murder of 28-yearold Thoriso Themane in Polokwane in 2019 shook the country. Video footage of the savage attack, which saw the aspiring musician stabbed and beaten to death by a group made up largely of teenage boys while on his way home from church band practice, was circulated on social media and prompted public outrage.

It has since emerged his attackers accused him of stealing a cap.

ALSO READ: Nomia Rosemary Ndlovu sentenced to life imprisonment for murder

Sentencing proceedings for Alfred Mothapo, Chuene Maleka and six others are scheduled for early next year.

In 2019, following an almost five-year reign of terror, serial rapist Sello Abram Mapunya was nabbed by Tshwane police. In May, the 33-year-old father was convicted of 41 counts of rape, 40 counts of robbery with aggravating circumstances and 40 counts of housebreaking.

He was given a prison sentence of more than 1 000 years, thought to be one of the longest sentences meted out to date in South Africa.

Judge Papi Mosopa, handing down Mapunya’s sentence in the high court, described him as “evil”