200 hours for man who peed on driver

TWO hundred hours of his time is all that former model Djavan Arrigone has to give up for urinating on a taxi driver from the balcony of the Tiger Tiger nightclub.

The 200 hours of community service is a condition attached to a three-year suspended sentence which the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court handed Arrigone yesterday after he was convicted of assault and crimen injuria.

But the case could still go to the Western Cape High Court after Arrigone’s advocate, Eben Grobbelaar, indicated Arrigone would apply for leave to appeal against his conviction.

On January 24, 2014, Arrigone was at the club partying and drinking with friends when he exposed his genitals to patrons and urinated from the club’s balcony. His urine landed on Michelle Nomgcana – a metered taxi driver who had operated in the area for more than 15 years.

But it didn’t end there. Arrigone laughed when he was alerted to where his urine had landed, made racist remarks and refused to apologise.

A separate Equality Court case Nomgcana has brought in Wynberg is still pending.

Magistrate Siviwe Yaki pointed out the case had taken a psychological toll on Arrigone, who had attempted suicide and struggled with his BCom studies at UCT.

He lost his modelling job as a result of the publicity, leaving him financially dependent on his father.

Yaki said she hoped he had learnt his lesson.

Nomgcana, the court pointed out, could not find work and became a laughing stock in his community because being urinated on was seen as bad luck.

However, she added, given that 21-year-old Arrigone was young and had a clean record, imprisonment was not an appropriate sentence.

A wholly suspended sentence on its own would, however, be seen as a slap on the wrist, she added.

Speaking outside the courtroom, Nomgcana said, while he was relieved the case was finalised, he was disappointed at the sentence.

He’d hoped the court would send a message to the youth that racism was not acceptable. “It ruined my life,” he said. Nomgcana said he had been transporting people in the Claremont area for 15 years and even had celebrities and sports personalities as clients.

Since he became known as the man whom a white man urinated on, those in the meter taxi industry and his clients distanced themselves from him, he said.

“They didn’t want me at the rank,” he said, adding it was a bad omen when someone urinated on you.

He had contemplated suicide at one stage, but had to consider his three children.

Nomgcana said he hoped he would be compensated so he could get his business going again and afford to pay for a cleansing ritual.