The National Prosecution Authority (NPA) will reinstitute the action against Khumbulani Malinga after AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit intervened in the case. In March 2019 Khumbulani ran down Lizel Visagie who later died of her injuries in Middelburg. He must appear in the Middelburg Magistrate’s Court on 1 February 2021.
During the incident Visagie pushed her minor daughter out of the way of Malinga’s vehicle while he was busy fleeing from the traffic police. Her leg was severed during the incident and she passed away on the way to the hospital.
AfriForum on 29 September 2020 wrote to the NPA on behalf of the Visagie family considering that the case against Malinga has been dragging on for longer than a year. The NPA, according to their letter to AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit on 13 November 2020, initially withdrew the charges against Malinga since the blood alcohol report was outstanding. The case against Malinga was struck off the roll on 23 August 2020 as a result of this.
“AfriForum welcomes the NPA’s decision to indeed prosecute Malinga seeing that Lizel Visagie’s next of kin deserves justice. Cases like these emphasise the necessity of the pressure that the Private Prosecution Unit is applying so that prima facie cases can indeed be prosecuted. We will continue to monitor the case and assist Lizel’s next of kin in this regard,” says Adv. Phyllis Vorster, Prosecutor at AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit.