Pretoria - Norma Mngoma, the estranged wife of Malusi Gigaba, scored a victory in fighting her arrest last year on crimen injuria and malicious damage to property charges.
Judge Cassin Sardiwalla ordered that the decision by the Hawks to apply for her warrant of arrest and the execution of the arrest was unlawful.
He further ordered that the confiscation of her electronic gadgets was unlawful and the Hawks are ordered to return all the information which they unlawfully removed and downloaded from her electronic equipment.
The Hawks must also foot the bill for her urgent application to the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, which resulted in this order.
She is due to appear in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Friday in her criminal trial. It is not clear at this stage how this order will impact on her criminal trial.
Mngoma claimed that her arrest and subsequent prosecution was unlawful.
She was arrested at the end of July at the Waterkloof home she shared with her former minister husband, Malusi Gigaba, following claims that she, among others, had damaged a luxury car by scratching it.
Her gadgets, such as cellphones, a laptop and other devices, were confiscated by members of the Hawks. While they had handed the devices back, it was claimed they had downloaded personal information contained on the devices.
She was detained overnight in a police cell before she was granted R5 000 bail. She subsequently appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on criminal charges.
Pretoria News