Mechanic wins R270k in damages for unlawful arrest

The police minister has been ordered to pay R270,000 in damages to a Mozambican man who was unlawfully arrested and beaten by cops, who also lied in court that he had been drunk and had beer bottles in his car.

The court found that the arrest and assault of Vigo Manuel Macamo after he overtook a police car in Soweto in 2019 was at least in part xenophobic in nature.

When assaulting him, the two police officers — Sgt Risonga Maluleke and Sgt Davidson Mutavhatisindi — told him he “was not in Maputo now”, which high court judge Stuart Wilson interpreted to mean he could not expect the same treatment he would get in his home country.

The incident happened in Mdlalose Street in Protea North when Maluleke, Mutavhatisindi and seven other officers from the public order police were driving a marked car after finishing an operation. 

According to the evidence in court, Macamo overtook the vehicle before he was stopped at the roadblock by the metro cops, who checked before allowing him to proceed. Maluleke and Mutavhatisindi allegedly chased after Macomo and caught up with him shortly after the roadblock.

The officers assaulted him and accused him of drunk-driving. An officer approached the sergeants and asked them to release Macamo but Maluleke refused and proceeded to detain him at Protea Glen police station, where he was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, reckless and negligent driving, and driving an unroadworthy vehicle.

He was released the next morning on bail and charges against him were later withdrawn.

A doctor who had examined Macamo said he had a bruise on his nose, a bruise on his left shin, and marks and bruises on both wrists. The doctor also observed that Macamo was tender to the touch on his left lower rib cage and the left side of the front of his lower abdomen.

Macamo, a mechanic, denied being drunk on the night of his arrest. 

Macamo's evidence of his assault was corroborated by Sgt Nzimande, who stopped at the scene of the arrest. Nzimande said Macamo had been handcuffed while he was kicked and slapped by the two officers. Nzimande said he recognised Macamo because he had done some work on his car. 

Nzimande told the court he asked the two officers to release Macamo but they refused. He then drove away. 

Wilson, who sat in the litigation case, was satisfied by Macamo and Nzimande's evidence. 

“Macamo’s evidence was somewhat terse, but there was nothing inherently improbable or unreliable about it. He was, overall, an impressive witness. It seemed to me that his taciturn demeanour in the witness box was designed to hold in genuine feelings of anger and humiliation at what, on his version, was plainly a harrowing episode. Mr Macamo clearly found it difficult to recount the events of which he gave evidence,” said Wilson.

Maluleke and Mutavhatisindi denied assaulting Macamo but accepted that Nzimande was present at the time of Macamo's arrest. 

The court said it failed to accept assertions that Macamo was drunk and driving recklessly. 

“Sgt Maluleke and Sgt Mutavhatisindi both testified that Mr Macamo overtook them at speed before running a red light. They pursued Mr Macamo and stopped him just before the JMPD roadblock. They say that they found three bottles of beer in Mr Macamo’s car, two of which were empty. They said Mr Macamo was plainly drunk and unco-operative and that he was detained for his own safety. They alleged that Mr Macamo refused to provide his driver’s licence and that he was driving without a valid car licence,” said Wilson. 

“I do not think that I can accept either Sgt Maluleke’s or Sgt Mutavhatisindi’s evidence. In the first place, neither officer mentioned the detail of the bottles of beer in Mr Macamo’s car in their contemporaneous statements. Nor did Ms Tshifhango put that detail to Mr Macamo in cross-examination. In my assessment, Sgt Maluleke’s and Sgt Mutavhatisindi’s version that Mr Macamo had bottles of beer in his car was a falsehood, made up after the fact.”

In delivering the judgment on Tuesday this week, the judge said though Macamo had only spent nine hours in detention, his experience of being arrested, assaulted and taunted about being from Mozambique was horrific to him. 

On top of the R270,000, the state was also ordered to pay Macamo's legal fees. 

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