Durban - KwaZulu-Natal businesswoman Manana Nhlanhla says she feels vindicated after she was acquitted of attempted murder charges in the Pietermaritzburg Magistrate’s Court.
Nhlanhla, 70, who is a director of various companies, was accused of having assaulted her business partner’s friend, Nondalo Brenda Mhlongo, with a wine decanter in July 2020 Mhlongo, who visited Nhlanhla’s business partner in Drummond, said she had been attacked.
Her arms and hands were seriously injured and she had had to have surgery on several occasions. Mhlongo believed that she was attacked because she was in a relationship with Nhlanhla’s business partner and he had bought her a luxury car.
Nhlanhla was charged with assault in the Camperdown Magistrate’s Court. However, due to the severity of the injuries to Mhlongo, the National Prosecuting Authority changed the charge to attempted murder. The hearing was transferred to the Pietermaritzburg Magistrate’s Court.
Nhlanhla maintained her innocence, saying she was not in the house where the alleged incident took place. This was despite Mhlongo having witnesses in the house including her sister, Nomusa Mhlongo, who took her to hospital and testified in court. Handing down the ruling, magistrate Ismail Malek said the State had led no evidence that Nhlanhla entered the house where the alleged incident occurred and attacked Mhlongo.
He said there were serious shortcomings in the State’s case, which “fell well below the minimum threshold” for prosecution”.
The court denounced the conduct of a senior official of the KwaZulu-Natal Director of Public Prosecutions (KZN DPP) as “scandalous, unfair, onesided, biased and unethical”.
The shortcomings ranged from the nature of the charges against Nhlanhla to the inability of State witnesses (complainant and chief state witness Nomusa Mhlongo) to satisfy the court on basic issues such as Nhlanhla’s identity, the clothes she wore and the exact place where the offence was allegedly committed.
“The evidence of Brenda and Nomusa is so dangerous and unstable that it can not be relied upon. There is no credible evidence before me,” said magistrate Malek.
Regional NPA spokesperson Natasha Ramkisson-Kara confirmed Nhlanhla’s acquittal but would not comment on Malek’s remarks, saying the NPA had not seen the ruling. “We do not have the transcript of the judgment and will have to request same before commenting further.”
Nhlanhla said: “My innocence has been vindicated. The allegations and charge were completely false, trumped up, malicious, baseless and extortionate. “I am a victim of a R2.1 million theft from my business and an attempt to extort R6.9m from me.
“I agree with the magistrate that the partisan role by the office of the KZN DPP in favour of the complainant was scandalous ... and, in my view, malicious,” said Nhlanhla.
Barnabus Xulu, Mhlongo’s lawyer, said the case was a classic example of a miscarriage of justice that needed to be challenged.
“Anyone who wants to understand the miscarriage of justice must study this case. There are several avenues we will explore, but we do not have the written judgment yet, which is very strange.
We have written to the NPA and court to get the ruling so we can study it and see how we move forward. My client feels justice was not served, and two weeks later, we haven’t received a judgment or response to the letters we have written,” said Xulu.
SUNDAY TRIBUNE