Africa-Press – South-Africa. A man who spent nearly two years and eight months in prison after being “maliciously arrested” by the police has been awarded almost R3.4 million in damages.
Judge Rob Mossop of the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg also ordered the police minister to pay interest on the amount dating back to 2015, when the summons was first issued, and to pay costs on a punitive scale.
In considering Mdunyiswa Mtolo’s case, Mossop said the facts were troubling, GroundUp reported.
“First [was] the length of the deprivation of liberty. Two years and eight months is a substantial period to lose from a human life.
“The malice that was found to exist is intensely upsetting. When those that are required to protect society prey on it then society is in trouble,” he said.
Mossop was dealing only with the quantum of damages.
The issue of liability was decided by another judge in 2021, who ruled that the police acted with malice when they arrested Mtolo in September 2011 on charges of housebreaking as well as theft of saddles and a motor vehicle.
Bail was refused based on evidence given by the investigating officer that Mtolo had been found and arrested while seated in a stolen vehicle.
He had, in fact, been arrested at his place of work in front of his colleagues.
Read the full judgment here
Mtolo, who was an assistant boilermaker and fitter, initially spent four nights at two separate police stations in the Pietermaritzburg area. Neither of these periods was recorded in the official records.
He then spent nearly two years and eight months at New Prison in Pietermaritzburg.
Mtolo said he was manhandled when arrested at his place of work and that his colleagues now regarded him as a criminal.
The conditions under which he was initially detained at the two police stations were “disgusting”, Mossop said.
Blankets in one cell appeared to have been vomited on and there was blood spatter all over the cell.
Mtolo said he saw police officers assaulting other detainees.
On his arrival at New Prison, he suffered the humiliation of being required to strip naked and jump around in front of prison officials and inmates to prove that he did not have any contraband on his person.
“He had to go through this ritual every time he returned from court. He suffered this indignity at least 37 times,” Mossop said.
At New Prison, the cells were overcrowded and food quality was poor. While there were steel beds, there were no mattresses and inmates used an exposed toilet.
To ensure his physical safety, Mtolo had to pay a monthly fee of R500 plus 200 cigarettes and a bag of tobacco to a prison gang.
When he was eventually freed, he was weak and it took him three months to get back in shape. He felt rejected by society and did not make eye contact with many of his co-workers, who believed that he had been sentenced for a crime and served time.
Mossop said he was impressed by Mtolo as a witness:
“There can be no doubt that this prolonged and disturbing experience to which the plaintiff was subject was both shocking and totally unnecessary.
“This country has an unfortunate history of people being treated in this fashion,” the judge said.
He noted that counsel for the police minister had submitted that police officials had done what they did to Mtolo “because they had the power to do so”.
“That is perhaps as close as we can come to understanding why these disturbing events occurred,” Mossop said.
He ordered the minister to pay Mtolo R3 million for malicious arrest and detention, R300 000 for impairment of dignity and R67 200 for loss of earnings.
The judge ordered that interest shall run from the date of service of summons in 2015 until the date of final payment of the total R3 367 200.
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