Gigaba fights R750 000 suit

Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba has been granted leave to appeal a case where he was ordered to pay R750000 to a foreign national for unlawful detention.

Christian Emeka Okonkwo was arrested on August 3 2012 despite being in the country legally and having the correct documentation for running his business.

Okonkwo spent 75 days in custody without ever going to court and approached the high court shortly after his release.

He claimed the immigration officer did not have a warrant of arrest or any legal authority to make the arrest.

He was arrested in front of his wife and their neighbours.

Okonkwo told the court that while he had been in the holding cells he had been threatened with assault and some awaiting- trial prisoners made attempts to have sex with him. He said the cells smelt of urine, he did not have a bed to sleep on and there was always competition for the use of the toilet.

He said he was subjected to humiliation, he also complained about the food and the crowded cells.

Okonkwo 's arrest strained his relations with his wife to the point that she left him and moved to Cape Town and his child was left in King William's Town.

Sitting in the East London High Court, Judge Phakamisa Tshiki found that Gigaba and his director-general were liable and ought to pay Okonkwo R750000.

The state has then decided to take the matter up on appeal.

In dealing with the application for leave to appeal, Tshiki said Okonkwo was treated unfairly.

"He was met with degrading and cruel treatment at the hands of the officials," Tshiki said.

"The defendants failed to treat [Okonkwo] as a detained illegal foreigner in terms of section 34 of the [Immigration] Act. They treated him as if he was not protected by the laws of this country and that there is no existing bill of rights provided by a constitution in our country," Tshiki added.

The state argued that in Tshiki's R750000 order, it was not clear how much of it was meant to cover 'deliberate disrespect' suffered by Okonkwo.

He had initially sued the state for more than R1-million and R400000 of it was for deliberate disrespect.

Tshiki then agreed for the state to appeal to the full bench.