Lungisa to petition court over bail pending appeal bid

ANC councillor Andile Lungisa will not hand himself over to start his prison stint because his legal team will file an application for leave to appeal against his sentence with the Constitutional Court on Tuesday.

Lungisa said on Monday his team would also petition the high court in Makhanda to extend his bail as he awaits the outcome of the Constitutional Court application.

On Monday, one of the members of Lungisa’s legal team, advocate Terry Price SC, said: “We haven’t submitted papers yet but they’ll probably be submitted by tomorrow afternoon in Johannesburg.

“First, it has to go to Grahamstown [now Makhanda] for the DPP [director of public prosecutions], then Braamfontein, to the Constitutional Court.”

On Wednesday last week, five judges of the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein dismissed Lungisa’s appeal against his two-year sentence for assault with intent to commit grievous bodily harm.

Lunigsa smashed a glass water jug over DA councillor Rano Kayser’s head during a Nelson Mandela Bay council brawl in October 2016.

The appeal court found the effective two-year sentence handed down by the trial court fitted the crime.

Lungisa said he believed everyone in SA should be equal before the law, while intimating he had been dealt with harshly based on who he was.

“We must all be equal before the law.

“There can’t be laws just for Andile Lungisa,” he said, adding he wanted the high court to extend his bail.

The state, however, said last week it would oppose requests for his bail to be extended pending the outcome of the legal process — something which could take years.

Asked if it stood by its earlier statement, NPA spokesperson Anelisa Ngcakani said on Monday: “Mr Lungisa did not report to the clerk of the court today.

“Clarity will be obtained tomorrow, there will be further developments tomorrow.”

Earlier on Monday, former ANC Youth League leaders launched the Justice for Lungisa campaign on the steps of the Constitutional Court.

Former Gauteng ANC Youth League provincial secretary Ayanda Kasa said the campaign was premised on the idea that every citizen must be treated

The state, however, said last week it would oppose requests for his bail to be extended

equally before the law.

“In this regard, we want to affirm that our courts are the rightful platform through which this principle must be implemented.

“We, therefore, want to reenunciate the principle of the judiciary to be independent.

“In this context, the judiciary must always avoid making its decisions because of the status of an individual in society,” Kasa said.

In their ruling, Supreme Court of Appeal judges Mandisa Maya, Nambitha Dambuza, Caroline Nicholls, Sharise Weiner and Nolwazi MabindlaBoqwana said the community was entitled to expect a high level of responsible behaviour and maturity from its leaders, which included municipal councillors.

Instead, Lungisa and some of his colleagues had behaved like “street thugs”.

Lungisa spent just 16 days behind bars before he was granted bail pending his appeal to the high court.

Kasa said Lungisa, a former deputy president of the ANCYL, was being treated unfairly.

“Justices and magistrates should make their judgments based on their correct and reasonable understanding of the facts relating to each case.

“We ask of the justices of the Constitutional Court to re-look the matter and protect the rights of this noble citizen,” Kasa said. —