Assault case reinstated against Smuts Ngonyama's wife for allegedly beating domestic worker

The assault case against Nokwazi Ngonyama — the wife of SA’s former ambassador to Japan, Smuts Ngonyama — for allegedly beating their domestic worker with a broomstick in July 2023, which was controversially struck off the roll in the Mdantsane Magistrates’ Court in August, will be reinstated, the National Prosecuting Authority has confirmed.

The domestic worker, Tandiswa Tokwe, and her family gave a press conference in East London on Wednesday, 29 October. She noted that it was exactly two years to the day since she had laid a charge of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm against Nokwazi Ngonyama.

She said Ngonyama struck her several times with a broomstick in July 2023 in the ambassadorial residence in Tokyo. Smuts Ngonyama was South Africa’s ambassador to Japan at the time, but he has since ended his diplomatic tenure and returned to South Africa.

In a statement at the press conference read by her sister Noluthando Snobolo, Tokwe said the alleged assault was “a traumatic experience that still haunts me to this day”. She described her frustration at delays in bringing the case to court. She said she believed it was only because of the intervention of the Commission for Gender Equality that Ngonyama had been charged at all.

She described how the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) had advised her that several attempts had been made in 2024 to serve a court summons on Ngonyama, which she had refused to accept. At one point, the NPA considered asking for a warrant of arrest to be issued against Ngonyama. Tokwe said Ngonyama then avoided appearing in court several times by pleading illness. She eventually appeared in court on 31 January 2025.

Ngonyama’s lawyers argued that the Mdantsane Magistrates’ Court had no jurisdiction over the matter because the alleged assault had happened in Tokyo. The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) rejected this argument, and Ngonyama’s lawyers told the court they would appeal against this decision to the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP), Shamila Batohi.

On 25 April, Ngonyama’s lawyers told the court that the NDPP was still considering their appeal, which they had received on 17 April.

In June, the court had still not received the NDPP’s decision, and the magistrate postponed the case until 29 August for the decision. On that day, the prosecutor told the court that the NDPP’s decision was still “not ready” and that the DPP in Bhisho had “not sent corrections to the NDPP for her decision”. Ngonyama’s lawyer then asked for the case to be struck off the roll. The prosecutor did not object, and the magistrate agreed to strike the case off the roll.

At Wednesday’s press conference, Tokwe asked why the prosecutor had not opposed the case being struck off the roll, what the “corrections” were that the DPP in Bhisho had needed to send to the NDPP and why he had not sent them.

“Is it because I am a lesser person?” she asked, adding that “the conduct of the NPA has so far not instilled much confidence in me. I feel I am left on my own, hoping the system will protect me.”

Last week, Daily Maverick asked the NDPP communications head, Bulelwa Makeke, why the NDPP had not given the Mdantsane court the opinion it was seeking about whether it had jurisdiction to try the case. She replied that “the NDPP has not received any representations from the [Eastern Cape] Division regarding this matter” and referred us to the Eastern Cape DPP.

Puzzling

Luxolo Tyali, the spokesperson for the DPP in the Eastern Cape, said: “The case was struck off the roll at the instance of the defence attorney because they contended that there was a delay of the decision by the National Director of Public Prosecutions.

“They are the ones who want the review of the decision by Eastern Cape Director of Public Prosecutions to enrol the matter. It is therefore equally puzzling to the State that the magistrate decided to strike the matter off the roll based on what the defence advanced, while they are the party that is seeking the review of the DPP decision.

“The prosecution has always been ready to proceed with the trial and will be re-enrolling the matter. To that effect, a summons has been issued to the accused and will be served on her soon.”

Tyali said the summons would be served on Ngonyama by mid-November.

Daily Maverick asked Tyali why the prosecutor in the case had not objected to the case being struck off the roll when Ngonyama’s lawyer asked for this on 29 August.

He replied: “It is the magistrate who has a duty to evaluate the validity of an application to the court.”

Snobolo said, “We will take his word for it” that the case would now be reinstated.

Tokwe, who had been working in the ambassador’s residence since May 2019, has told Daily Maverick that Nokwazi Ngonyama offered no reason for laying into her with a broomstick on 14 July 2023, beating her three times on her thighs and arms.

According to Tokwe, “Nokwazi said, ‘You have to tell me, what is going on in the house?’ I said, ‘I don’t know. There is nothing happening here.’”

After the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) heard of the incident, it sent an official to Tokyo to try to resolve the dispute. Ngonyama and his wife apologised to Tokwe, and she briefly stayed on in her job.

But, she said, she grew increasingly terrified of Nokwazi Ngonyama and, on 27 July 2023, she quit the job and returned to South Africa.

Smuts Ngonyama and Nokwazi Ngonyama had not responded to Daily Maverick’s request for comment at the time of writing. DM