Assault charges brought against EFF member Floyd Shivambu by Netwerk24 photographer Adrian de Kock have been dropped.
CAPE TOWN – Assault charges brought against EFF member Floyd Shivambu by Netwerk24 photographer Adrian de Kock have been dropped in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson in the Western Cape, Eric Ntabazalila said in a statement on Wednesday that the Cape Town Magistrates’ Court cleared Shivambu of a charge of common assault, following his successful application for the court not to prosecute him at the close of the State’s case.
“The magistrate, Lindiwe Gura, rejected the complainant’s and witnesses’ evidence as contradictory. She also said that the complainant was contradictory to his medical evidence.
“She added that one of the witnesses even tailored his evidence to suit the State’s case.”
Shivambu was charged following an incident at the Parliamentary precinct on March 20, 2018.
De Kock told the court that he had taken pictures of Shivambu, after which Shivambu told him that he had no permission to take his pictures and demanded that he delete them.
“De Kock refused. He claimed Shivambu and two unidentified men attacked him.
“After a protracted trial, the defence applied for a Section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Act and the court granted it. The NPA accepts the decision of the court,” Ntabazalila said.
The Section 174 application by Shivambu holds that “if, at the close of the case for the prosecution at any trial, the court is of the opinion that there is no evidence that the accused committed the offence referred to in the charge or any offence of which he may be convicted on the charge, it may return a verdict of not guilty”.
De Kock on Wednesday said he did not yet have a copy of the report and could not comment.
Shivambu said the State presented “a weak and contradictory case”.
The trial wasn’t supposed to happen in the first place because all the complainant wanted was a claim of R300,000.
“The complainant said during cross-examination that he knows that there was no intention to assault him and the doctor that examined him said emphatically that there was no assault at all.
“Our legal representatives meticulously exposed the wrong intentions of the State because it is primarily the NPA at provincial and national levels and who were pursuing the case and they lost.
“Thank you very much to the lawyers, advocate Ross Mckernan, attorney Xolani Mkhwanazi and advocate Lawrence Hodes for meticulous and clean work,” said Shivambu.
