Judgment day for Winnie

2004-07-04 21:47

Pretoria - Judgment is to be handed down in the Pretoria High Court on Monday in an appeal by Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and broker Addy Moolman against their fraud and theft convictions.

The former African National Congress Women's League (ANCWL) president was found guilty in the Pretoria Regional Court in April last year on 43 counts of fraud and 25 of theft.

She was given an effective four-year sentence - eight months of which was to be served in prison and the remainder as correctional supervision.

Moolman was found guilty of the same charges plus another 15 of fraud. He was sentenced to an effective five years in jail. Both are out on bail pending the outcome of the appeal.

The fraud related to loans obtained from Saambou Bank for non-ANCWL employees using fraudulent letters on league letterheads bearing Madikizela-Mandela's signature. The letters falsely stated that the applicants were employed by the league.

The theft charges pertain to amounts of R360 deducted from the Saambou loan applicants' bank accounts for a funeral policy that did not exist.

Judge Eberhardt Bertelsmann, who heard the appeal on June 21, criticised the State's case against the pair.

Charges 'not proven'

He expressed doubts about the credibility of State witnesses and whether some of the charges had actually been proven.

Ishmael Semenya, for Madikizela-Mandela, argued that her conviction had been based on an unfair trial. He said his client's constitutional rights were infringed upon when the trial court turned down her application for further particulars to the charge sheet.

Semenya and Dup du Plessis, for Moolman, both contended that the State had failed to make out a case against their clients.

Both appellants blamed one another. Madikizela-Mandela contended she signed the loan application letters blindly, trusting Moolman, while he said he acted on her instructions in deducting money.

Lawyers for both asked the court, if it decided to uphold the convictions, to replace their clients' sentences with correctional supervision - Semenya pointing out that his client was a great-grandmother.

Since her conviction Madikizela-Mandela has resigned from the ANCWL, as an MP and as a member of the ANC's national executive committee.

- SAPA