Controversial activist Ben Mafani was relieved when the Grahamstown magistrate's court decided to extend his five-year suspended sentence following an application by the state to apply it after he breached the conditions of his 2007 suspended sentence.
Controversial activist Ben Mafani was relieved when the Grahamstown magistrate's court decided to extend his five-year suspended sentence following an application by the state to apply it after he breached the conditions of his 2007 suspended sentence.
Mafani was shocked on Friday last week when he was summoned to appear in court yesterday following the state's application.
It's been an epic of pain and frustration for Mafani – a saga of embarrassment and frustration for the authorities.
In 1979 police arrested Mafani at his home in Coega, near Port Elizabeth, and dumped him and his family at Glenmore resettlement camp. His protests at the time were ignored and since 1994, Mafani has been petitioning the new government in an effort to secure redress for the community.
The malicious damage to property charge stems from Mafani's throwing a rock through a window of the high court in Grahamstown.
He did it for the first time in 2004.
In 2007 he broke three windows at the court and was charged for malicious damage to property.
He was sentenced to a R2 000 fine or a year in prison, but the sentence was suspended for five years on condition he was not convicted of a similar offence in that five-year period. Seven months later in 2008, he did it again, was arrested and then released on a warning.
In court yesterday state prosecutor Nevadia Adriaan applied for the 2007 five-year suspended sentence to be set in operation following Mafani's breach of its conditions.
Mafani did not dispute that he had breached the conditions of the suspended sentence. Mafani's legal aid attorney Nozuko Notyawa gave a brief history on his string of cases before stating that he had committed the offence to attract attention to his plight. Notyawa told the court that Mafani had no criminal intentions when he committed the offence, adding that after being advised to follow other avenues he agreed to try that.
She also said the breach was a trivial one, also blaming it on a lack of knowledge.
She said the implementation of the sentence would not serve its intended purpose because sending him to prison would just frustrate him.
She said he was still in the process of speaking to his ancestors to come to terms with the trauma of losing his wife and children during the 1979 adding that sending him to prison will only put more strain on him.
Adriaan on the other hand voiced the state's sympathy for Mafani, but said the court should not be the platform to resolve such issues. However, she agreed with Notyawa that imprisonment would not serve the intended purpose and therefore asked for the suspended sentence to be extended.
In handing down her judgement magistrate Ntsoki Moni said it was encouraging that Mafani was not denying that he breached the conditions. She said with assistance from his lawyer he gave reasons why the state should not put into operation the suspended sentence. Moni said the court had taken note of what was said and acknowledged that Mafani had gone through a lot psychologically in the past.
She said the court had given him the benefit of the doubt before and he had assured the court that he would resort to other forums. Moni said the court was still of the opinion that he is deserving of a second chance, adding that he poses no harm to the community.
Moni concluded that the 2008 sentence be suspended for a further three years with the same conditions that were attached back in that year.
