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Court orders police minister to compensate security company owner for unlawful arrest

The Embrace Project wants the sexual offences amendment bill on the meaning of consent referred back to the National Assembly. Stock photo.
The Embrace Project wants the sexual offences amendment bill on the meaning of consent referred back to the National Assembly. Stock photo.
Image: 123RF/Evgenyi Lastochkin

The owner of a security company who was tussling with a man who had just damaged a vehicle was filled with hope when police pulled up.

Then Mnyamezeli Madolo was assaulted and arrested by the police, and it wasn't long before he found himself behind bars.

Four years later, the high court in Mthatha has ordered the police minister to compensate  Madolo for his unlawful arrest.

Madolo told the court how sergeants Deon Muller and Zandisile Ngqandu assaulted him, pointed a gun at him and detained him on December 1, 2017 in Libode, Eastern Cape.

According to the judgment, one of Madolo's staff told him a suspect had trespassed at a construction site his company was guarding and damaged a tractor loader backhoe.

When he reached the site he found the suspect in his guards' custody and decided to take him to Libode police station.

On the way, the suspect asked to relieve himself but then produced a knife and stabbed Madolo's arm. One of his security officers restrained the suspect and a struggle ensued.

“The punching on the face and physical restraining of the body of the suspect, met by a hard resistance, resulted in the suspect being stopped from fleeing,” said deputy judge president Zamani Nhlangulela.

"[Madolo] stopped his other employees from charging at the suspect, and as he was stopping [one of them] from committing further assault upon the suspect, Mr Muller and Mr Ngqandu arrived at the scene and, without saying a word, assaulted him. 

“Thereafter, the police placed him under arrest and drove him in a police vehicle to the Libode police station where a charge of assault was laid against him and he was detained in a holding cell until 5-6pm.” 

Madolo told Nhlangulela he was not taken to court and no statement was taken from him.

“In the witness box, [Madolo] told the court that the conduct of the police officials ... constituted a terrible infraction upon his constitutionally-protected rights to dignity and bodily integrity. He dropped down into tears,” said the judge.

Muller told the court he saw three men with sticks and another one with a belt assaulting the suspect who lay on the ground. He said he instructed the men to stop the beating and all of them obeyed, except Madolo.

“According to him the beating of [the suspect] was so severe that he sustained serious bodily harm. Ngqandu had to fire two warning gunshots which [Madolo] ignored and continued to beat up [the suspect],” the judgment said.  

“According to Muller, while he was still at the scene he destroyed the sticks that he had recovered from [Madolo] and his employees.”

Ngqandu said Madolo was not assaulted by any of the eight policemen at the scene.

But Nhlangulela said: “[Madolo] did not only tell the court that the police assaulted him, he placed before court a medical report proving that he sustained serious bodily injuries.

“Despite the denial by the police, the inference that the police caused him the injuries is a reasonable one to be made.”

Counsel for the minister said the “court should take into account the fact that since policing work can, at times, be too onerous, the objectives of policing duties in terms of ... the constitution ought to provide a shield against liability that the [minister]is faced with in this matter”. 

But Nhlangulela said the “submission is wrong, lest the courts were to be allowed to sanction wanton police brutality”.

Nhlangulela ruled that Madolo had proved his case against the minister. He also found the minster liable to compensate Madolo and pay the legal bill. The amount of money Madolo will receive is yet to be determined.

TimesLIVE

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