ConCourt dismisses councillor’s fraud appeal

ANC Nelson Mandela Bay councillor Bongo Nombiba has finally exhausted all legal avenues and has nowhere else to go – except to St Albans Prison to start serving his five-year jail term for fraud, says a Daily Dispatch report. Eight judges of the Constitutional Court found that not only did Nombiba’s application for leave to appeal fail to engage the jurisdiction of the top court, there was no reasonable prospect of success. This was the fourth and final blow for the councillor, who had failed in his attempts to appeal against his fraud conviction and subsequent sentence to the Eastern Cape High Court (Makhanda), the SCA and ultimately Constitutional Court. Nombiba was found guilty of fraud and money laundering in 2018 after it was found that he had pocketed R20 000 meant for the NGO, Thulamangwane Community Project, in November 2014. He was sentenced in March 2018 to an effective five years in prison but served just one month before being released on bail pending his petition for leave to appeal.

Although Nombiba’s petition was dismissed on 6 June he has still not reported to prison, says a report in Die Burger. It adds that the ANC has now acknowledged that it will remove Nombiba before the next council meeting. Legalbrief Today reported previously that a warrant of arrest was issued for Nombiba, but cancelled when he petitioned the Constitutional Court in a last-ditched attempt to escape imprisonment. The Die Burger report says ANC provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukaitobi confirmed that Nombiba will be removed. ‘As we said earlier, we gave him an opportunity to appeal, but it now seems that he is guilty and we will let him go. It is a very serious offence. It cannot be condoned to steal from the poor.’