ANC councillor Andile Lungisa is petitioning Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge for leave to appeal his conviction for assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm and his effective two-year prison sentence.
Lungisa‚ 40‚ was convicted after he smashed a glass water jug on the head of Democratic Alliance councillor Rano Kayser during a heated Nelson Mandela Bay council meeting in October 2016.
He was earlier released on bail of R10,000 pending the outcome of his petition to the high court in Grahamstown after serving just 16 days of his two-year sentence.
Lungisa says in an affidavit that at the core of his appeal was whether or not he had intended to assault Kayser and the magistrate had misdirected himself in finding that he had.
Lungisa says he had believed he was under attack at the meeting and had been defending himself.
He said the sentence was shocking and disproportionate to the crime.
- DispatchLIVE
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