Africa-Press – South-Africa. The policeman who was slapped after the 2019 State of the Nation Address (SONA) at Parliament sustained a 3cm wound on the bridge of his nose and redness in one cheek, a doctor testified in the assault trial of EFF secretary-general Marshall Dlamini on Tuesday.
“He said he was smacked across the face,” Dr Lynne Swarts told the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court.
Swarts testified that the policeman, Warrant Officer Johan Carstens, had blood on the bridge of his nose and his cheek and collar when she saw him.
She noted the deep abrasion on the bridge of his nose and redness around his right eye.
At the time, Carstens said a member of Parliament had slapped him, moving his glasses across the bridge of his nose. His eye also hurt.
She explained that Carstens was given the routine “AVPU” test, which categorises the state of a patient.
He was listed as an “A” for alert, on a scale that includes V for only responding to verbal communication, P if only responding to pain, and U for unresponsive. Dlamini listened intently from a far corner of the small court room.
‘Hier kom ‘n ding’: Police officer testifies during EFF MP’s assault trial
His wound was treated. He was not prescribed the typical pain medication for that level of injury – which would have been paracetamol and an anti-inflammatory – because he said he had a pain killer at home that he could take.
He had superficial red marks on his cheek known as erythema.
Swarts found no sign of drug or alcohol abuse, and Carstens was not kept for the usual six hours’ neuro-observation because she did not suspect any mild traumatic brain injury such as concussion.
Dlamini, who was the EFF’s head of security at the time, has been charged with assault to cause grievous bodily harm and malicious damage to property following the incident in the lobby of the National Assembly building after the SONA in 2019.
He has pleaded not guilty.
After the incident, the EFF said in a statement that the party had been on heightened alert at the SONA after getting information of a right-wing plot to assassinate its leader Julius Malema.
They thought that when a scuffle started, the plot to kill its leader was in motion.
During Monday’s testimony by plain-clothed police officer Leticia Robertson, the court heard that Malema had accidentally stood on her foot, and she grabbed at him to steady herself.
The scene was captured on video, and shortly afterwards, Malema’s bodyguard blocked him from other people as the party shouted that they had the right to pass through the area.
President Cyril Ramaphosa was doing a quick meet and greet after the SONA at the other end of the lobby, which was filled with a mixture of members of Parliament, guests, plain-clothed police officers, and the “white shirts” security officials.
The court heard that Carstens was booked off from 7 February to 11 February and returned on 11 February as instructed to have his wound checked.
At that consultation, he said he was having intermittent headaches.
Prosecutor M Malgas said Carstens had stated that after being slapped, he became dizzy and almost blacked out, and he felt nauseous.
He also told officials at work that the doctor had recognised concussion.
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However, Dlamini’s lawyer, advocate Laurance Hodes, said there was no mention of concussion in Dr Swarts’ J88 – the official doctor’s record of injuries that is given to the police after a medical examination.
He said there was also no mention of nausea in her notes. Swarts said she could not get access to Carstens’ complete file, but she did not diagnose him with concussion.
When he returned for his check-up on 11 February, she asked him to leave the wound open to help it heal.
At the trial, EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu arrived to sit in the public gallery with the party’s Vuyani Pambo and a handful of other supporters who had braved the Cape Town rain.
Shivambu’s own assault trial for allegedly hitting Netwerk24 photographer Adrian de Kock took place in the court next door.
When Swarts was finished testifying and being cross-examined, the court heard that the previous witness Robertson was booked off sick until April after taking ill on Monday.
She still has to finish being cross-examined by Hodes.
The trial was postponed to 29 July because of a clash with other matters, and Hodes’ commitments at the Life Esidimeni inquest.
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