Minister of Police forced to pay up... again

The Minister of Police has been found liable for damages for the unlawful arrest, detention and assault of a Ladysmith man.

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Durban - The Minister of Police has been found liable by the Pietermaritzburg High Court for damages - to be determined at a later stage - for the unlawful arrest, detention and assault of a Ladysmith man.

In a reserved judgment handed down by Judge Dhaya Pillay, she found that the arrest and subsequent detention of Mthobisi Lucky Thungo on March 18, 2012, at Ezintabeni, a rural area near Ladysmith, was unjustified and unlawful.

The judge also found that the assault on Thungo, by officers identified only as Madida and Mabuyakhulu, in which Thungo’s calves, thighs and fingers were burned and he was hit on all parts of his body, was unlawful.

Thungo maintained that he was assaulted on suspicion of being a police informer.

According to court papers, Thungo was unceremoniously beaten with open hands and a stick, and then arrested at his home by the two policemen, identified as warrant officers Jerome Madida and Themba Mabuyakhulu.

He was then taken to a pole and tied up, where Madida gathered some dry grass and plastic bags and spread them around Thungo. They then lit the grass and Thungo was burnt. He remained tied to the pole for three hours.

The officers continued to add grass to the fire to keep it burning. Eventually, they untied Thungo, put him in an unmarked police vehicle and dropped him off in a secluded area. He eventually managed to make his way home in his injured state and was taken to hospital, where he remained for two weeks.

Thungo denied he was an informer and that he had assisted the police in solving nine cases against his family members in 2012.

Madida has been a policeman for 22 years and Mabuyakhulu for 23 years.

Madida testified that Thungo had been an informer for 10 years, but was not registered as an informer because Thungo was afraid of other policemen who resided in his area.

Madida said Thungo’s arrest was staged, as Thungo feared being attacked by people who suspected he was a police informer. The arrest was staged to quell this suspicion.

However, the judge found Thungo and a witness who saw the vicious assault, to be credible, non-rehearsed, unsophisticated witnesses.

She found that the evidence of the policemen was “far from flawless”.

Pillay said in order to succeed with their defence that the arrest was staged, they had to establish that Thungo was, in fact, a police informer. However, they had failed to do so, which in turn failed to justify the reason for Thungo’s arrest.

On their version, the police claimed Thungo was burned and assaulted by a third party after they parted ways with him. The judge found this to be an implausible defence.

How much Thungo will be awarded in damages is yet to be determined.

Daily News