Mpisane decision makes mockery of justice

There is no doubt our justice system is in trouble. Shauwn Mpisane has been let off the hook over 55 fraud and forgery charges because the state failed to meet a court-imposed deadline ("Bling queen off hook as state messes up case", yesterday).

How does this happen? A case like this should have been of high priority.The withdrawal of charges means Mpisane will get back R70-million in seized assets and R28-million in cash.

Last year, she was paid R229-million by the eThekwini municipality and landed tenders in 2012 worth R445-million.We honest citizens can only reel at these huge amounts of money being bandied around in a country with such poverty. - Barbie Sandler, by e-mail

The news that fraud charges were withdrawn against Shauwn Mpisane sends a message to South Africans that the justice system is faulty and incompetent.

Awaiting trialists like Radovan Krejcir and Oscar Pistorius must be laughing their heads off at the incompetence of the authorities. - Nathan Cheiman, Northcliff