Cape Town – A petition to have convicted wife beater Jaco Swart’s sentence reviewed is gaining momentum.
Swart was sentenced to a R20 000 fine and a suspended three-year prison sentence last month after videos of the vicious attack on his wife, went viral on social media.
The sentence handed by the Pretoria North Magistrate’s Court in June caused national outrage, with many calling it a “slap on the risk”.
Soon after, a petition called “Justice for Nicole Swart” was launched and so far, it has received over 20 000 signatures.
According to News24, the petition calling for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to appeal Swart’s sentence was started by Alexa Jooste, whose sister, Charlene October, was murdered last year.
The report said the petition was handed over to the NPA’s Director of Public Prosecutions, Gauteng Division advocate Sibongile Mzinyathi.
In the petition handover letter, Jooste stated that given the scourge of gender-based violence in the country, Jaco’s sentence sent a wrong message to gender-based violence (GBV) perpetrators and asked the NPA to rectify this injustice, the report said.
“It is, therefore, in the interests of justice and the South African public, whom the NPA represents, to rectify the above message by appealing the sentence,” the report quoted from the handover letter.
The South African reported that the petition came a few days after Swart alleged he had been attacked by a group of men.
ALSO READ | Convicted wife beater Jaco Swart claims a group of men ‘assaulted him and put him in a boot of a car’
Last month Jaco’s lawyer, Enoch Nethanani said that his client had sent him a voice note detailing how he was assaulted by a group of men in Pretoria.
He allegedly told Nethanani that a group of men allegedly told him they wanted to break his hands and assaulted him before placing him in the boot of a car.
Nethanani said he feared for his client’s life and that no case had been opened as Swart had lost faith in the police.
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Compiled by Olwethu Mpeshe
