DA goes to court over Grace affair

The Democratic Alliance (DA) yesterday said it had asked the Constitutional Court for direct access to challenge South Africa’s decision to grant Zimbabwean first lady Grace Mugabe diplomatic immunity after she allegedly assaulted a local woman.

The DA filed papers a day after AfriForum and the alleged victim, Gabriella Engels, lodged a review application of the decision by International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane.

“The DA has filed papers in the Constitutional Court requesting direct access to argue that the decision of the minister of international relations and cooperation, to grant diplomatic immunity to Grace Mugabe, should be set aside as wholly without legal merit and should thus be declared unconstitutional and invalid,” said James Selfe, the chairperson of the DA’s federal executive.

Selfe said granting immunity had been “hasty, embarrassing and above all, illegal and unconstitutional”.

He added that it was unconscionable the government allowed another high-profile person to evade arrest after the North Gauteng High Court ruled in February that it had violated the constitution in the case of Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir.

The DA said nothing entitled President Robert Mugabe’s wife to diplomatic immunity. – ANA