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Woman weeps after aquittal
19/07/2007 21:45 - (SA)
Cape Town - A former maintenance clerk at the Cape Town Magistrate's Court, Mandy Olivia Daniels, wept with relief on Thursday after she was acquitted on two counts of corruption.
Daniels, 39, seemed stunned by the outcome, and remained standing in the dock after the verdict until a court official told her she was free to go.
On the first count, prosecutor Karin Grootboom alleged that Daniels had in November 2005 corruptly requested a R1 000 payment from candidate attorney Thillagabathi Rowdee, to expedite the issue of a warrant of execution.
On the second charge, she was alleged to have similarly requested R1 000 from divorcee Victoria Joubert, also to expedite the issue of a warrant of execution against Joubert's former husband.
Magistrate Mogamad Esau said Daniels had in fact not received any money, and that special efforts to expedite the issue of legal process did require the payment of fees to the justice department - although not R1 000.
He said the alleged incidents had happened too long ago for witnesses to recall reliably what had happened and for this reason he was obliged to give Daniels the benefit of the doubt.
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