Norma Mngoma’s arrest by the Hawks was unlawful, rules high court

An urgent application brought by Norma Mngoma to challenge her arrest by the Hawks in July 2020 has been granted by the high court in Pretoria.

Judge Cassim Sardiwalla ruled that the arrest was unlawful and should be set aside.

“Having considered the facts of this matter and arguments, the application is granted on an urgent basis,” Sardiwalla ruled

The judge said the Hawks should return Mngoma’s devices and restore all the information downloaded from them .

The law enforcement-agency will have to bear the legal costs.

Mngoma was arrested after allegedly causing extensive damage to a multimillion-rand Mercedes-Benz driven by her estranged husband, former minister Malusi Gigaba.

Mngoma is facing charges of malicious damage to property and crimen injuria. While facing the charges, Mngoma approached the high court to challenge her arrest by the Hawks.

She argued that it was an orchestrated conspiracy to bully and intimidate her in order to gain access to her gadgets to delete certain information. She claimed that after getting her devices back, there were messages and images deleted from one of them, although the Hawks have insisted there was nothing illegal about their raid.

ALSO READ: Hawks insist they did nothing wrong after Norma Gigaba’s case postponed

The couple has had a rollercoaster marriage. In her interview on eNCA in December 2020, she made a number of serious allegations against Gigaba, saying she is willing to appear before the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture to give evidence.

During the interview, Mngoma alleged that by the time she and Gigaba got into a relationship, he was already involved with the Guptas.

ALSO READ: A brief history of Norma Mngoma and Malusi Gigaba’s stormy relationship

The duo is in the process of getting a divorce. She dropped the Gigaba surname amid allegations of infidelity from Malusi.

“Let me reintroduce this beautiful lady. Her name is Norma Mngoma, I’m so excited to use my maiden surname again, this is who I am and where I belong,” she said at the time.

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