Two victims of unlawful arrest and detention have been awarded damages by North West High Court in Mafikeng, with payouts totalling R390,000.
In the first case, farm worker Ditebogo Raymond Maritz, who was unlawfully arrested and detained from 8 September to 1 October 2018, has been awarded R350,000 in damages. Similarly, the Minister of Police, in a separate ruling, has been ordered to pay R40,000 to Felicia Longman for her unlawful arrest and detention.
In Maritz's case, the legal entanglement arose from his apprehension over alleged stock theft, a charge he vehemently denied throughout the court proceedings. Describing the circumstances of his arrest as duplicitous, Maritz, who was en route to seek employment at a local farm, found himself in a precarious situation after unwittingly trespassing on a private property. Encountering a security vehicle that fired a warning shot, Maritz and his companions fled the scene, only to be intercepted by police.
An officer identified only as Sergeant Metsi in the judgment testified on behalf of the police, claiming to have acted on information relayed by a local farmer, Anton Barnard, who accused Maritz of slaughtering his cow. However, Maritz countered that he was picked up far from the crime scene, arguing that the details of his arrest were wholly misrepresented.
Central to the court's decision was the absence of corroborating evidence to justify the police's claims of a lawful arrest. The court noted the failure to summon Barnard and other potential witnesses who could have clarified Maritz's actions leading up to the apprehension. Metsi's reliance on unverified reports was deemed seriously flawed, thereby undermining the legal foundation of the arrest.
The judgment reiterated the principle that the burden of proof lies with the defendant in instances of unlawful arrest, underlining that such an arrest is "prima facie unlawful" and constitutes a breach of constitutional rights. "The plaintiff's liberty was removed the moment he was apprehended," read the judgment.
The court also scrutinised the conditions of Maritz's detention, which were characterised as inhumane, with a lack of basic dignity. For a protracted 23 days, he endured overcrowded cells, insufficient food, and an absence of privacy, circumstances considered intolerable by the court.
The Longman case dated back to 12 May 2022, when she was arrested without a warrant alongside co-accused after allegations of kidnapping and assault surfaced. The court found that the arresting officer's justification was profoundly flawed, which resulted in the court declaring the arrest unlawful.
Longman testified to the squalid conditions of her detention, lamenting the stench, leaking latrines, and lack of sanitary facilities, conditions that pose significant questions about detainee treatment under police custody in South Africa.
The ruling stressed the importance of personal liberty, as enshrined in South African law, reaffirming that police must have legitimate grounds for suspicion before making an arrest. The case reiterated that an arrest lacking such justification not only infringes upon constitutional rights but cannot be justified after the fact. It also took into consideration the emotional and psychological impacts of wrongful arrests on individuals and set the R40,000 compensation as a reflection of this infringement on Longman's dignity.
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