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  SAFLII

  Note: Certain

  personal/private details of parties or witnesses have been

  redacted from this document in compliance with the law

  and SAFLII

  Policy

   

  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

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