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Party supports Mayor in court battle

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Dear MyPE

The DA in the Eastern Cape stand in full support of Athol Trollip, executive mayor of the Nelson Mandela Bay (NMB) Metro, in his court battle against Ms Nonthutuzelo Jack.

Ms Jack made a public statement to the Daily Dispatch on the 25th of March 2016, that Mayor Trollip had tried to bribe her to “dig up dirt” on the former DA Provincial Chairperson, Veliswa Mvenya. The newspaper’s front page headline read “Trollip trips over bribe claim”.

This headline and the affidavit under oath to the Party for purposes of an internal investigation are seriously defamatory and injurious to Mayor Trollip’s good name, reputation and public standing. These allegations resulted in charges of crimen injuria and perjury being laid against Ms Jack by Mayor Trollip.

The case, after many delays, was finally placed on the court role yesterday (30 January 2018) and the plaintiff, defendant and witnesses were all subpoenaed to appear in court. Just before the court was to consider the matter, it appears Ms Jack, for the fourth time “fired” her legal aid representative.

The Magistrate then ruled that Ms Jack must hire a private attorney at her own cost and have the attorney appear in court yesterday at 14:00 to advise that he is defending Ms Jack. The Magistrate ruled that failure to meet these conditions would result in a warrant of arrest being issued and that she will in future have to represent herself.

This is not the outcome we anticipated, as all we want is for the truth to emerge about these outrageous and fictitious allegations against Mayor Trollip. We are however pleased that the Court made a ruling on these delaying tactics, that serve only to delay justice prevailing.

Regards

Mlindi Nhanha
DA Eastern Cape Provincial Spokesperson

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