guilty of contempt of court<\/a> and authorised a warrant of arrest for failing to attend the scheduled court appearance last week, striking the case off the roll, and cited an unreasonable delay in proceedings.\u00a0<\/p>\nThe South African National Christian Forum (SANCF) said the Justice and Constitutional Development should initiate an investigation against Tonjeni and establish whose interests she acted in.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This comes after the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) filed an application for leave to appeal Tonjeni\u2019s orders.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The NPA stated that it was deeply concerned with how she handled the high-profile matter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP), Advocate Andy Mothibi, said he had appointed a senior legal team to manage the appeal and demand written reasons from Tonjeni.<\/p>\n
Ntaba reportedly informed the Kwaggafontein Magistrate\u2019s Court that he had prior commitments and security concerns, requesting that the hearing be shifted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tonjeni denied the request and ordered him to appear.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When Ntaba failed to appear, Tonjeni immediately struck the high-profile extortion case off the court roll and issued a warrant of arrest for him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the letter issued to Kubayi on Sunday, SANCF president Bishop Marothi Mashashane said Tonjeni has brought the entire justice administration in the country into deep public disrepute and mockery.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe urgently plead with your office and the Magistrates Commission to immediately suspend the presiding senior magistrate pending an intensive investigation, which we request should be initiated against her to establish whose interest she acts in,\u201d read the letter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSuch are the kind of magistrates we have in our lower courts who sent poor accused persons to prison for failure to attend court while on bail, without holding an enquiry to establish whether it was the person’s own fault, instead of issuing a warrant of arrest suspended for at least 14 days to allow the prosecutor to present himself and explain why he failed to appear, she immediately pronounced that he is found guilty of contempt of court,\u201d Mashashane said.<\/p>\n
Mashashane added that no judicial officer had the authority to arbitrarily dismantle an organised crime case of this magnitude on a first-instance delay.<\/p>\n
He said no established case law in South Africa supported striking a critical criminal trial off the roll on a first postponement request without ordering a provisional \u201cfinal postponement\u201d first.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBy bypassing standard criminal procedure, this senior magistrate has set a dangerous precedent that effectively rewards syndicates who intimidate state officials,\u201d said Mashashane, adding that to brand a prosecutor with a criminal contempt order because he retreated due to a verified threat to his life was a complete perversion of judicial power.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSection 168 of the Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977 explicitly empowers a court to adjourn proceedings when necessary or expedient. Our higher courts have firmly established that a case should not be struck off prematurely over isolated delays, particularly where a systemic or logistical crisis is present.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fundamental constitutional principle of the audi alteram partem (hear the other side) dictates that every individual has the absolute right to be heard and defend themselves before being convicted. As established in landmark cases like De Lange v Smuts NO and Others [1998] ZACC 6, finding an individual guilty of contempt in absentia, without allowing them the opportunity to present a lawful excuse, constitutes a flagrant violation of their right to a fair trial,\u201d the letter reads.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kubayi\u2019s spokesperson, Palesa Rammitlwa, acknowledged questions sent to her but had not responded at the time of publication.<\/p>\n
[email\u00a0protected]<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Mmamoloko Kubayi has been requested to investigate Mpumalanga Chief Magistrate Tuletu Tonjeni,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[52],"tags":[128250,31387,123219,83941,128251,5805,5799,131,113712],"class_list":["post-252452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-south-africa","tag-chief-magistrate-tuletu-tonjeni","tag-contempt-of-court","tag-extortion-case","tag-joe-ferrari-sibanyoni","tag-judicial-integrity","tag-mmamoloko-kubayi","tag-national-prosecuting-authority","tag-south-africa","tag-south-african-national-christian-forum"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/116637735793043574","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}