Who and what is AfriForum?

AfriForum is an Afrikaans civil rights organisation that protects the rights of minority groups at national as well as provincial level, and anyone who can identify with AfriForum’s principles and objectives may join the organisation. AfriForum’s community plan focuses on mobilising communities to thus take control of their own streets and neighbourhoods again. AfriForum ensures that your constitutional and civil rights are recognised and protected at national level.

Wie en wat is AfriForum?

AfriForum is ’n Afrikaanse burgerregteorganisasie wat die regte van minderheidsgroepe op sowel nasionale as provinsiale vlak beskerm, en enigiemand wat met AfriForum se beginsels en doelstellings kan identifiseer, mag by die organisasie aansluit. AfriForum se gemeenskapsplan fokus daarop om gemeenskappe te mobiliseer om só weer beheer terug te neem oor hul eie strate en woonbuurtes. AfriForum verseker dat jou grondwetlike én burgerregte op nasionale vlak erken en beskerm word.

Landmark ruling: Court orders NPA to pay AfriForum’s private prosecution costs in assault case

In a landmark decision, the Mamelodi Magistrates Court ordered the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to pay the costs incurred by AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit after successfully convicting a man of assaulting his female neighbour. On 12 November last year, in the Mamelodi Magistrates Court, Irvin Thabo Ngobeni was found guilty of assaulting Nthabiseng Sebothoma, scoring a victory in the fight against gender-based violence. He was sentenced to three months in prison or a R6 000 fine, suspended for five years.

Section 15(2) of the Criminal Procedure Act states that the court may order the state to pay the private prosecution’s costs and expenses if private prosecution is initiated after the state declines to prosecute and the accused is convicted. In this case, the private prosecutors were Advocates Phyllis Vorster and Obed Tongoane.

Vorster argues that the NPA’s irrational decision not to prosecute Ngobeni created the need for private prosecution, which resulted in costs being incurred. “It’s pertinent to point out that the NPA failed to monitor the prosecution with a view of joining the case when the facts became known. Even worse is the NPA’s failure to take charge of the prosecution for sentencing purposes. The NPA missed the opportunity to mitigate the costs associated with a private prosecutor,” says Vorster.

The case stems from an incident on 23 September 2023, when Sebothoma was woken up by her neighbour in Moretele View, Ngobeni, who claimed that someone had thrown his car keys onto the roof of her house and that he needed access to the property to find them. When Sebothoma told him to return at daybreak, he became verbally abusive and threatened to kill her. When she denied him access to the property, he assaulted her by punching and kicking her, as well as scratching her and ripping her clothes.

Advocate Gerrie Nel, Head of the Unit, says the costs order marks an important milestone in the development of private prosecution in South Africa. “This cost order is an indictment of the NPA’s inexplicable failure to prosecute without fear, favour, or prejudice, and it sends a message that there are consequences when the criminal justice system fails victims. It is disturbing that our first three private prosecutions all involved gender-based violence, which the NPA chose not to prosecute. This demonstrates that the criminal justice system only pays lip service to its stated strategy of prioritising cases involving women and children,” says Nel.

The court order also highlights the high cost of securing justice – which many South Africans cannot afford – when the NPA fails to hold criminals accountable for their actions. AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit will continue to work to make private prosecution a viable and accessible alternative in the fight against selective prosecution and to maintain the rule of law in the face of a collapsing criminal justice system.