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IN
THE HIGH COURT OF SOUTH AFRICA
EASTERN
CAPE LOCAL DIVISION - MTHATHA
CASE
NO 1551/13
In
the matter between:
NOTHEMBA
PRETTY SIBULALI
PLAINTIFF
And
MINISTER
OF
POLICE
DEFENDANT
JUDGEMENT
MGXAJI
AJ
[1]
The plaintiff instituted this action against the defendant suing for
damages arising from an alleged unlawful and wrongful assault
on her
by members of the South African Police Services. The plaintiff
alleges that the assault took the form of torture, plastic
suffocation, sticks and coercion.
[2]
In her amended particulars of claim in paragraph 3 and pertinently in
paragraph 5 thereof the plaintiff pleaded her assault
claim in the
following terms:
“3.
On the 10th
May 2013 at Mantusini location Mthambalala A/A Lusikisiki district,
the plaintiff was wrongfully and unlawfully assaulted by the
members
of the South African Police Services tortured, suffocated using
plastic, coerced or assaulted by sticks, by people who
addressed
themselves as members of the South African Police Services whilst
they were executing their duties within their scope
of employment.
4.
This tragedy arose while she was bereaved for the death of her sister
in their homestead.
5.
These members wore Police uniforms using vehicles [B......] and
[B......].
6.
The defendant’s conduct was blameworthy to society; and so as
such their actions resulted to liability.
7.
The conduct of the tortfeaser was directed against the plaintiff with
the intention to injure her.
8.
As a result of their wrongful conduct the plaintiff suffered these
damages, unlawful conduct which causes harm to the plaintiff.
8.1
Infringement of dignity of the plaintiff.
8.2
Invasion of privacy.
8.3
Physical injuries.
8.4
Fault on part of the defendant, contumelia.
8.5
Voluntary wrongful conduct directed to the plaintiff, pains and
suffering by the plaintiff.”
[2]
The defendant denied the assault allegations and in its plea relative
to the above quoted paragraphs of the plaintiff’s
particulars
of claim, pleaded as follows:
“4.
AD PARAGRAPH 3-8THEREOF
4.1The
defendant denies that it ever assaulted or dealt with the plaintiff
in the manner pleaded by her. Defendant admits though
meeting the
plaintiff on the date in question.
4.2
Defendant through an informer acquired information that plaintiff had
a firearm in her premises which was being used in the
commission of a
criminal offences.
4.3
The members of the defendant visited the plaintiff and after she
arrived at her homestead the members of the defendant requested
consent to search her home after all her rights were explained to
her. After her rights were explained to her, she agreed. Indeed
the
members of the defendant searched the premises as agreed upon.
4.4
The defendant at no stage did they drive a motor vehicle [B......];
plaintiff is put to proof of his allegations. The balance
is denied.”
[3]
At the commencement of the trial Mr Mkhongozeli, who appeared on
behalf of the Plaintiff, advised the court that the Plaintiff
was
pursuing only the claim of the alleged assault for determination and
abandoning all other issues in the plaintiff’s suit
and that
only the Plaintiff would testify on her behalf. Mr Kunju representing
the Defendant confirmed the alleged assault claim
being the only
issue this court will have to make a finding on at the end of the
trial and that the defendant would possible call
one witness. It is
so that the matter fell to be dealt with on merits and quantum.
EVIDENCE
[4]
The Plaintiff in her evidence in chief, led by Mr Mkhongozeli,
testified that she resided at Mantusini locality, Mthambalala
Administrative Area, Lusikisiki and on the 10th May 2013
was at her sister’s homestead attending a night vigil when at
3:00 am Police Officers amongst them a Police woman
arrived looking
for her. They slapped her with an open hand and the female Officer
started to assault her without identifying themselves.
She testified
that they asked for her husband who was not at home but at his great
home, inquiring further from her as to where
the firearm was and in
respect to which she told them she had no knowledge of.
[5]
She testified that the Police put a plastic on her nose spraying
something on her eyes, handcuffed her wrists while hitting
her with
sticks on her back in which she sustained strikes. She stated that
the fire arm was not found and she had to consult a
Doctor in
Hospital at Lusikisiki on the following day as a result of the
assault. At this stage a J88 completed Form was provisionally
handed
in after an objection by the defendant’s counsel to the
document on the basis that it was completed by a Doctor who
should be
summoned to hand it in. She confirmed the notes regarding her
injuries as recorded in the J88 Form provisionally made
EXHIBIT A
praying that this court should grant her a compensatory order.
[6]
The Plaintiff was cross-examined on behalf of the defendant by Mr
Kunju and testified that she never saw a firearm at her home
and that
the Police Officers were taken by her nephew from her home to her
sister’s homestead where she was attending a night
vigil
whereafter entering the house she was in with other mourners the
Police Officers came and just clapped her, manhandled her
hitting her
with sticks. She stated that they started the assault with open hands
while she was at her sister’s place continuously
and at her
home they handcuffed her and kicked her having been subjected to such
assault on the way to her home crying too. She
testified that she was
telling them that there was no firearm and had no knowledge of it.
[7]
She testified that she was sprayed in her eyes and could not see as
her eyes looked as though it was dark. When asked how she
saw those
who assaulted her to have been in Police uniform she stated that her
eyes had tears and they told her when assaulting
her that they were
Police Officers. When put to her that she was never tortured she
answered that she was handcuffed at her home.
The plaintiff, when it
was put to her that the Police on the day had no sticks, stated that
they used firewood from her homestead
picked from a fireplace. When
it was put to her that the Police would testify that she had
co-operated and they had no reason to
assault her, she replied that
they started at her sister’s place to assault her after she had
told them that she had never
seen a fire arm at her homestead.
[8]
When asked whether was there no other infringement she complained
about she stated that she was pepper sprayed on her eyes,
plastic was
put on her nose after being taken from her sister’s place and
was assaulted all over the body specifically on
her thighs, that she
had cuts on both hand writs, also at her back sustaining
strikes on it and after the assault she
had difficulty urinating, her
head became painful and also her buttocks were painful from the
assault although she was never stripped.
When asked if she told and
showed her body to the doctor she answered that she merely informed
the doctor of her injuries. She
testified that when she reported on
the cell phone in the presence of the Police Officers to her husband
about the assault her
husband said to her the Police should go to
him. When it was put to her that her husband rebuked her on the phone
for co-operating
with the Police in the latter’s search for the
firearm she denied that her husband had said so but that the Police
should
go to him.
[9]
When re-examined by her attorney she testified that the Doctor who
examined her was no longer in Lusikisiki.
[10]
The Plaintiff closed her case without calling further evidence.
[11]
On behalf of the defendant Ayanda Jafta testified that she was a
44year old member of the South African Police Services since
1994 and
as on the 10th May 2013 was attached to the
Public Order Policing Unit on patrol in a group of twenty Police
Officers at Mthambalala,
Lusikisiki having been so commanded as a
consequence of the spate of robberies and murder of Pakistan
Nationals in the area. She
stated that in one homestead after they
had subdivided into a unit of five officers they found an unkempt boy
who introduced himself
as the nephew in the homestead whose owners
had gone into the neighbourhood and who led them on their request to
the homestead
where the plaintiff was.
[12]
At this homestead this boy whilst standing at the door pointed at the
plaintiff whom the witness requested to speak to and
who without any
resistance acquiesced. She stated that they asked the plaintiff for
permission to search her homestead as they
had information of a
firearm kept at her premises, denying the plaintiff’s assault
allegations at the homestead where they
fetched her. She denied
handcuffing the plaintiff and when she agreed to the search for the
fire arm the plaintiff pointed them
to near the kraal but nothing was
found and then the plaintiff led them to a shrub, still in the
homestead, in which when they
could not retrieve it they asked her
husband’s whereabouts.
[13]
The witness stated that they caused the plaintiff using their cell
phone to speak to her husband regarding their presence in
search of a
firearm in their homestead. She testified that when they noticed that
her husband was not co-operative they left with
her their phone
number to which they instructed the plaintiff that her husband on his
return should call them as he refused to
disclose where he was. She
stated that there was whilst at the plaintiff’s homestead a
neighbourly man who joined them in
observance. She further stated
that there was at all time the boy who had accompanied them to the
home to which the plaintiff had
gone for a night vigil and from which
they fetched her, denying that they tortured and suffocated the
plaintiff.
[14]
The witness was cross-examined by Mr Mkhongozeli on behalf of the
plaintiff as to who had informed them about the firearm to
which the
witness in reply stated that it was their Commander and that she had
never met the plaintiff before or after that day.
She admitted being
the only lady in her patrol sub group of five Police Officers denying
any assault on the plaintiff. She conceded
that they gave the
plaintiff their cell phone to call her husband but who, the witness
testified, threateningly dissuaded her against
cooperating with them
in their search denying that when they could not find the firearm
they repeatedly assaulted the plaintiff
with sticks and suffocation.
She admitted that the Police motor vehicle BSJ EP was used by them on
the day. When put to her that
they assaulted the plaintiff the
witness denied.
[15]
At this stage Mr Kunju advised that he was closing the defendant’s
case.
[16]
In argument Mr Mkhongozeli submitted that the plaintiff’s
evidence was unshaken and that the J88 medical report which
has been
provisionally handed in should be finally admitted in terms of
of the . He argued
that the defendant’s witness, as in the defendant’s plea,
was just denying the assault because she was the
only woman in the
Police group. He urged me to find in plaintiff’s favour and
grant a compensatory order for general damages.
[17]
On behalf of the defendant Mr Kunju argued that I have to determine
whether the plaintiff was ever assaulted by the defendant’s
members contending that the plaintiff’s evidence is full of
contradictions, unreliable and exaggerated. He argued that the
plaintiff had an onus to prove her allegations but failed to call
witnesses like the boy the plaintiff was staying with and who
was
present to corroborate her testimony. He further submitted that the
J88 Form which merely reflected bruises should not be admitted
as it
has not been agreed to by the defendant and that the Doctor who
completed it has not been called too. To help in analysing
the
evidence in this matter he referred me to the tools of analysis
enunciated in STELLENBOSCH
FARMERS’ WINERY GROUP LTD AND ANOTHER v MARTELL ET CIE AND
OTHERS[1].
[18]
Mr Kunju argued that the defendant’s witness did not contradict
herself and in denying the assault, given the paucity
of the
plaintiff’s testimony, nothing more could be expected of the
defendant.
PLAINTIFF’
S ASSAULT ALLEGATIONS AND PROOF
[19]
In my assessment of the evidence the issue to be determined is
whether the plaintiff has discharged the onus cast upon her
of
proving the alleged assault by the defendant’s members on the
10th
May 2013.The onus the plaintiff bears is the overall duty of proving
the factual circumstances of the alleged assault which factual
issue
the defendant in its plea has denied. If the plaintiff has failed to
satisfy this court that she is entitled to a finding
in her favour
ineluctably her claim must fail. Put differently it follows that if
the plaintiff has failed to furnish some measure
of proof of the
assault on her by the police, then no prima facie case has been
established and there will be no duty cast upon
the defendant to
adduce evidence to combat or in rebuttal.(See: SOUTH
CAPE CORP v ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT SERVICES[2]).
[20]
Only the plaintiff testified on her behalf regarding only the assault
she alleges in her particulars of claim was inflicted
by police
officers amongst whom was a female who clapped her face with an open
hand whilst at her sister’s place where there
was a night
vigil, also was assaulted on her way home handcuffed, and at her home
they assaulted her all over her body. The plaintiff
stated that she
did not identify the Police neither did they identify themselves
because it was in the dark.
[21]
In paragraph 5 of her particulars of claim the plaintiff mentioned
the motor vehicle registration numbers [B......]1B and BSJ834B
as
number plates of the motor vehicles used by the three Police Officers
who assaulted her, testifying at court that the former
registration
numbers she had noted it from a Police Vehicle at the hospital when
she attended at about 10h00 to the Doctor on following
day. The
defence witness testified that her Police Unit did not use a motor
vehicle with registration numbers [B......]1B but [B......]
in their
patrol that night.
[22]
Under cross examination as to when was she assaulted she testified
that she was assaulted with an open hand, sprayed in the
eyes and
handcuffed with a plastic put on her nose whilst at her sister’s
place and on the way to her home. When asked
if the Police were
in uniform she answered yes yet in her evidence in chief she
testified that it was dark and unsure in what attire
were these
Police. Over and above the assault methods aforesaid in her evidence
the plaintiff further testified about an indiscriminate
assault all
over her body with sticks which under cross examination she said were
firewood collected by the Police at her home.
[23]
Further under cross examination she stated that the Police started to
assault her heavily from the feet to the head after asking
her
husband’s whereabouts and a fire arm about which she testified
to have answered that she had no knowledge and that her
husband had
gone to their great home. She testified that the Police caused her to
speak to her husband who she told about the assault
she was subjected
to but her husband rebuked her for co-operating with the Police. She
admitted that in the Doctors J88 report
which was provisionally
admitted there was no recording of the assaults she testified to have
sustained but only a three centimetre
linear bruise on her left hand
and 5 x 6 bruises at the back. It was her testimony that she was
stripped naked on her upper body
and assaulted as also in her
buttocks and head all about which she had told her Doctor.
[24]
During the assault on her, as she testified, from her sister’s
home and until her home there was the young boy staying
with them who
accompanied the Police to the plaintiff at the night vigil and back
to her home. Further she testified that when
she was suffocated with
a plastic bag there was a man observing all the assault on her.
Notwithstanding the defendant’s denial
of the assault on her
the plaintiff has not called as a witness the young man who, she
testified, to have been her nephew and who
she testified witnessed
the assault nor has the plaintiff called the man, who she testified,
to have been from her neighbourhood,
who was present at her home
during the perpetration of the assault by the Police neither her
husband who, she testified, to have
informed when she was caused to
speak to him on the cell phone by the Police.
[25]
Of course consistent with its plea the defendant’s witness
denied in her evidence any assault on the plaintiff and that
the
plaintiff never spoke of assault to her husband when they caused her
to speak to him regarding the firearm.
[26]
In her testimony on behalf of the defendant the Police witness denied
having assaulted the plaintiff, admitted having spoken
to the
plaintiff whom they fetched assisted by a young boy from her sister’s
place in the night vigil and that they searched
her homestead for a
firearm. It must be said that what was put to the defence witness
under cross examination that the plaintiff
was assaulted by Police as
a group but not the witness in singular deviated from the plaintiff’s
evidence in chief that she
was assaulted with an open hand by the
only female Police Officer in the group even though the plaintiff has
not in her testimony
provided specifics as to who exactly assaulted
her at what stage and who sprayed her when and when was she put
plastic on her nose.
Her failure to testify regarding specifics such
as at what stage she was caused to undress her upper body, if by
herself, and by
whom amongst the Police Officers was she ordered to
strip bare her upper body and how thick the firewood or the sticks
she testified
were used in the assault on her body, in my assessment,
left her narration inadequate and hazy.
[27]
The plaintiff’s evidence of assault with fire wood or sticks,
which the Police witness denied, would ordinarily have
produced weal
all over her body and her testimony about a number of strikes having
been inflicted on her head, in my view, she
would not have escaped
sustaining haematoma yet the Doctor’s J88 Form reflects none of
those, not even a bruise, which to
me renders her version to be an
implausible claim. The plaintiff’s legal representative
attributed these shortcomings in
the plaintiff’s evidence to
her elementary schooling, a characterisation I disagree with because
she was led in her evidence
presentation and her glib answers
reflected not so much her inability to convey her recollection of her
alleged ordeal but rather
a lack of an account of what actually had
taken place.
[28]
The plaintiff appeared to me to be a self confident vivacious young
woman who cannot be said has had personal constraints consequent
from
her lack of a formal education. In my view she seemed to lack the
necessary information of a personally experienced event
narrator. It
is on account of this glaring absence of a coordinated way of
recounting the assault she alleged was perpetrated by
the Police that
her version I find to be unbelievable. It comes as not surprising, it
seems to me, that the plaintiff has not been
advised to seek
corroboration by the young boy, she testified, once stayed with her
as her nephew who accompanied the police officers
to where she had
been in the night vigil or the neighbourhood man who, according to
her evidence, was at her home during the alleged
assault nor anyone
at her sister’s home attending the night vigil, where according
to her testimony, she was clapped with
an open hand right in the
doorway of the house by the female police officer.
[29]
It is my fortified view that the plaintiff’s version is
factually incredible and her recollection of the assault, if
the
alleged assault ever occurred at all, unreliable and in my assessment
and evaluation of it against the evidence of the defence
witness it
is highly improbable too.(SEE: SFW
GROUP LTD &ANOTHER v MARLTELL ET CIE & OTHERS[3]).
In her evidence in chief the plaintiff stated that she was given the
J88 Form at the Police Station which she took to the hospital
where
it was filled by a Doctor. She has no hospital medical card which she
would ordinarily be issued with had she, as a consequence
of the
alleged assault, initially attended the hospital for medical
examination.
[30]
Inferably it seems to me, even though it was not specifically put to
the plaintiff, the J88 Form was given to her because she
had gone to
the Police Station to lay a complaint of assault on her that having
been her first step on the day after the alleged
assault on her,
hence the plaintiff’s inability to obtain evidence by a
hospital Doctor or Superintendant who would have
worked in giving
evidence in this matter from the hospital notes relating to
plaintiff’s hospital examination. This is so
notwithstanding
the fact the Doctor who completed her J88 Form has not been said to
have been beyond reach but merely transferred
from Lusikisiki.
[31]
What renders further the plaintiff’s version incredible is the
fact that under cross examination she stated that the
Doctor when he
completed the J88 Form did not examine her body but merely noted what
she relayed to him. Her evidence under cross
examination that she was
assaulted on the head and buttocks is not supported by the notes on
the J88 Form presupposing that she
had not mentioned to the Doctor
that she had been assaulted on these body parts. Further if her
testimony that she told the Doctor
without her body having been
examined on which part the assault had been inflicted is to be
believed how could she have identified
and counted the 5 x 6 bruises
at her back as noted in the J88 Form. Still further on what basis the
Doctor could have recorded
the bruises without having examined the
plaintiff and recorded what him/herself had observed. This is a
jigsaw puzzle only the
plaintiff could have in her testimony resolved
but failed though invited to deal with.
[32]
In view of these glaring incongruities on behalf of the plaintiff in
order to help bolster her version it was imperative that
medical
evidence should have been produced. When under cross
examination it was put to her that not only her husband
reproached
her during their cell phone conversation in the Police presence at
her home using their cell phone but also that she
was assaulted by
her husband after his return home, the plaintiff glibly answered that
she was at the funeral on his arrival. It
remained unclear whether
she was denying the assault by her husband or not.
[33]
As a last aspect in this matter on behalf of the plaintiff tendered
was a J88 medical report which was objected to on behalf
of the
defendant. In her evidence the plaintiff stated that the Doctor who
examined her left the Hospital. Mr Mkhongozeli on her
behalf applied
for the admission of the J88 medical report placing reliance on
of the that
this court must admit the J88 medical report in the interests of
justice. He however has not been able to advance which interests
of
justice on the facts and circumstances of this matter would be that
this court should be persuaded to admit the copy of the
medical
report.
[33]
It is so that the Doctor who filled the J88 Form according to the
plaintiff moved from Lusikisiki and there has not been any
attempt to
determine which hospital has he/she joined neither am I advised of
any attempts to locate him/her nor has there been
any endeavour to
secure such evidence from the hospital the plaintiff was examined in
by issuing a subpoena duces tecum utilising
(1) so that the
J88 Form becomes admitted to corroborate her assault allegations.
[34]In
such circumstances I do not consider it necessary to even begin to
investigate, where there are hospital doctors and notes
available
relating to the plaintiff’s examination, and consider the
circumstances that must inform the basis for the admission
of hearsay
evidence as are enumerated in (c) of the
.
[35]
The plaintiff’s legal representative if he had any spirited
effort to have the J88 medical report admitted in these proceedings
would have ensured that a doctor from the hospital in Lusikisiki has
been secured with ease to help the plaintiff in these proceedings
if
the plaintiff had attended the hospital for her alleged assault
injuries. In my view the J88 medical report remains inadmissible
as
it is hearsay unless the doctor upon whose credibility the probative
value of what it records depends has been called and testified.
[36]
Accordingly I find that the plaintiff failed to establish the alleged
assault on her by the police on the 10th May 2013 and her
claim must fail.
[37]
In the result the following order is made:
1.
The plaintiff’s claim is dismissed with costs.
____________
MGXAJI
AJ
ACTING
JUDGE OF THE HIGH COURT
DATE
HEARD:
26 MAY 2016
JUDGMENT
DELIVERED:
21 JUNE 2016
FOR
THE PLAINTIFF:
MR MKHONGOZELI
PLAINTIFF’S
ATTORNEYS:
H. N. MKHONGOZELI ATT.
NO.
5 PARK ROAD
MTHATHA
FOR
THE DEFENDANT:
MR KUNJU
THE
OFFICE OF STATE ATTORNEY
NO.
94 SISSION STREET
BROADCAST
HOUSE
FORTGALE
MTHATHA
[1]
2003 (1) SA 11
[2]
1977 (3) 534 at 548A-D
[3]
SCA par 5