Africa-Press – South-Africa. A petition calling for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to appeal the “shockingly inappropriate” sentence handed to convicted wife beater Jaco Swart has received almost 20 000 signatures.
In June, the Pretoria North Magistrate’s Court sentenced Swart to a R20 000 fine and a three-year prison sentence suspended for five years for the brutal assault of his estranged wife, Nicoleen Swart.
Swart was sentenced after pleading guilty to two counts of assault with the intention to inflict grievous bodily harm.
AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit, which held a watching brief for the victim, said he had no choice but to enter the guilty plea because he was facing an unassailable case that included surveillance footage of his violent acts.
After the sentence was handed down, videos of the assault surfaced on social media. CCTV footage captured Swart brutalising, pushing, punching and kicking Nicoleen at their business in 2018.
“Some of the vicious attacks took place in front of the couple’s two children,” AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit spokesperson Barry Bateman said.
‘Shockingly inappropriate’ – AfriForum on sentence for man who viciously assaulted estranged wife
He added the sentence was “shockingly inappropriate”.
When handing down the sentence, the court could only rely on the J88 (medical report) as the video evidence was not admitted to court.
While the prosecutor applied to have the surveillance footage admitted for the purposes of aggravation of sentence, this was disallowed after the defence questioned its authenticity.
“The defence raised the authenticity question – and the State rolled over and moved on,” Bateman said.
This despite the fact a video expert, who was summonsed to testify, was scheduled to be in court the following day.
“The prosecutor merely had to ask for the matter to postpone for a day so their expert witness could testify to the authenticity,” Bateman added.
Petition
Following the sentence, a petition was started by Alexa Jooste, whose sister, Charlene October, was murdered last year.
According to iOL, October’s former husband was arrested and charged with murder.
The petition, which calls on the NPA to appeal Swart’s sentence, had garnered 19 514 signatures by Wednesday afternoon.
According to a statement by Jooste, the petition was handed over to the NPA’s Director of Public Prosecutions, Gauteng Division advocate Sibongile Mzinyathi.
In her handover letter, Jooste said: “Given the scourge of gender-based violence and femicide [GBVF] in our country – my late sister being among those victims – sentencing an accused, who is convicted of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm to a woman, to a fine and fully suspended prison sentence, sends the worst kind of message to perpetrators of GBVF.
“It is, therefore, in the interests of justice and the South African public, whom the NPA represents, to rectify the above message by appealing the sentence.
“Additionally, given the inadmissibility of damning CCTV footage of Swart perpetrating his abuse on his victim, as evidence in aggravation of sentencing, there are reasonable prospects of success should the inadmissibility be appealed.”
News24 asked the NPA whether the petition was received. Its answers will be added once received.
Prospects of success
The head of AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit, advocate Gerrie Nel, said an appeal on the sentence alone was unlikely to succeed as an appellate court would only be able to assess the evidence before the trial court, meaning the video evidence could not be used.
Wife beater Jaco Swart alleges he was assaulted by group of men
If the NPA was to appeal on the inadmissibility of damning CCTV footage, it would have to try and argue the court erred on a point of law, Nel added.
This is also unlikely to succeed as the State did not fight the objection to the video footage being admitted.
Meanwhile, Nicoleen told News24 she appreciated the support in the form of the petition.
She said if she had known she would have had this much support from society, she would have been empowered to tell her story and approach the courts earlier.
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