Fighting for the rights of the helpless and proving that women can also be ruthless in court are just some the priorities for advocate Nomawethu Mvume.
Mvume has just retired from the justice department, where she began her career in 1980 as a clerk. Later she moved to the Department of Labour to handle their legal matters but returned to Justice in 1996.
She started prosecuting petty crimes in the district court in Germiston, Gauteng, and graduated to the regional court where she was able to sink her teeth into more serious cases.
“As a woman in prosecution over the years, I found that male colleagues often think the case will be a walk in the park because you are a woman. But they soon realise you will be no push-over while you are leading witnesses,” she said.
“Even the accused used to think if they smile at you a certain way then you will be more lenient towards them, but that never happened,” she added.
Mvume said she never wanted to be a defence counsel or even a presiding officer. Compared to prosecution, being a presiding officer was “lousy”.
Highlights in her long career include the conviction of an armed robber who was sentenced to 66 years imprisonment for cash-in-transit heists.
Another case she has recently worked on is that of a Stutterheim farmer who paid a woman to prostitute her daughter and her friends to him.
William Knoetze faced 28 charges including human trafficking for sexual purposes, sexual exploitation of a child and two counts of rape. He was sentenced to 15 years and the woman to 12 years.
Mvume retired on March 31 but she stayed on to finalise her last case. It is against a Nigerian accused of forcing two Gauteng teenagers into prostitution during the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
“These cases make me feel good about my work in prosecution. To a certain extent I feel like I have saved some children from a life of abuse,” she said.
She encouraged more young people to study law, saying it would open doors for them.
“The law is dynamic. You learn every day,” she said.
Mvume has now traded her thick legal books for magazines and novels as she relaxes at home after a long and fruitful career.
Retired advocate happy to know she made a difference
Mvume has just retired from the justice department, where she began her career in 1980 as a clerk. Later she moved to the Department of Labour to handle their legal matters but returned to Justice in 1996.
She started prosecuting petty crimes in the district court in Germiston, Gauteng, and graduated to the regional court where she was able to sink her teeth into more serious cases.
“As a woman in prosecution over the years, I found that male colleagues often think the case will be a walk in the park because you are a woman. But they soon realise you will be no push-over while you are leading witnesses,” she said.
“Even the accused used to think if they smile at you a certain way then you will be more lenient towards them, but that never happened,” she added.
Mvume said she never wanted to be a defence counsel or even a presiding officer. Compared to prosecution, being a presiding officer was “lousy”.
Highlights in her long career include the conviction of an armed robber who was sentenced to 66 years imprisonment for cash-in-transit heists.
Another case she has recently worked on is that of a Stutterheim farmer who paid a woman to prostitute her daughter and her friends to him.
William Knoetze faced 28 charges including human trafficking for sexual purposes, sexual exploitation of a child and two counts of rape. He was sentenced to 15 years and the woman to 12 years.
Mvume retired on March 31 but she stayed on to finalise her last case. It is against a Nigerian accused of forcing two Gauteng teenagers into prostitution during the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
“These cases make me feel good about my work in prosecution. To a certain extent I feel like I have saved some children from a life of abuse,” she said.
She encouraged more young people to study law, saying it would open doors for them.
“The law is dynamic. You learn every day,” she said.
Mvume has now traded her thick legal books for magazines and novels as she relaxes at home after a long and fruitful career.
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