Appeal date set for Lungisa
Nelson Mandela Bay ANC councillor Andile Lungisa remains confident that his twoyear sentence for assault will be overturned as a date for his matter to be argued has finally been set down in the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) — nearly four years after the attack with a water jug.
“I am happy that we have a date and that I can finally put this thing behind me,” Lungisa said yesterday.
He was informed this week that his matter would be heard in the Bloemfontein court on August 17.
Lungisa appealed against his sentence after a panel of judges ruled that his conviction for assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm should stand.
It was found that he had intentionally smashed a glass water jug over an opposition councillor’s head during a council brawl in October 2016.
DA councillor Rano Kayser sustained serious facial injuries as a result of the incident, which was filmed by another councillor.
And while Lungisa’s lawyers — Alwyn Griebenow and advocate Terry Price SC — insist a jail term is too harsh and that a sentence of correctional supervision would be far more appropriate, the state is insistent on the politician receiving a custodial sentence.
Now, almost four years later, a date for argument has finally been set.
The matter is due to be argued at 9.45am on August 17.
Appeals to the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court, and later the high court in Makhanda, had also failed, though judge Judith Roberson remarked that she may have imposed a lesser sentence had she presided over the trial.
“I am confident that this time I will be successful,” Lungisa said.