Portia Sizani fails to boot magistrate off her fraud case
The wife of SA’s ambassador to Germany will now have to focus on her trial after she failed in her high court bid to compel the presiding magistrate’s recuse himself
Portia "Pankie" Sizani‚ wife of SA’s ambassador to Germany‚ Stone Sizani‚ will now have to focus on her fraud and money laundering trial after she failed in her high court bid to compel the presiding magistrate’s recuse himself.The former early childhood development (ECD) district co-ordinator stands accused of defrauding the provincial education department by creating "ghost" teachers and pocketing their salaries. This took place between 2009 and 2010.Sizani contended that acting regional magistrate in the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court in Port Elizabeth‚ Mputumi Mpofu‚ was biased against her and applied for him to recuse himself. Mpofu rejected her allegations of bias and refused to recuse himself. Sizani resorted to the High Court in Grahamstown to review his decision.It was argued that Sizani had developed the perception of bias from the way in which Mpofu always ruled against her during her trial.But judge Jeremy Pickering said on Tuesday that none of the alleged manifest...
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