Judge throws out cop’s
assault appeal
An appeal by a police constable against her conviction for an assault on a member of the public not only failed, but her attempt caused a Pretoria High Court acting judge to voice his dissatisfaction at the “police brutality” and “complete disrespect” shown for the privacy of a Limpopo family.
03 April 2013
According
to http://www.iol.co.za
An appeal
by a police constable against her conviction for an assault on a member of the
public not only failed, but her attempt caused a Pretoria High Court acting
judge to voice his dissatisfaction at the “police brutality” and “complete
disrespect” shown for the privacy of a Limpopo family.
This was
after 30 police officers – 29 women and one man – raided the home of a Limpopo
spaza shop owner as they suspected he was selling alcohol illegally. They could
find only one crate of beer in the house, which the owner said was for his
consumption.
The
police not only forced the man to pay a R300 fine on the spot, but one of the
group, Constable Raesibe Bushy Montjane assaulted the homeowner’s young
daughter.
His
daughter was sprayed in the face with pepper spray, and slapped and kicked
because she was “disrespectful” towards the police.
The young
woman was so badly injured she had to receive treatment at a hospital.
Judge
Piet van der Byl, in turning down Montjane’s appeal, said he was satisfied that
what the evidence showed was nothing but police brutality and complete
disrespect for the family’s privacy.
“The
accused can regard herself lucky that she was not convicted on a charge of
assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm,” said Judge Van der Bijl.
He added
that the policewoman was also lucky she had not received a heftier sentence
than a R500 fine.
“It
boggles the mind why such an extraordinarily large contingent consisting of 30
police officers was, amid the unacceptable wave of serious crime in our
country, assigned to search the house of the witness and to force him to pay a
fine of R300 after having found a measly case of beer in their house… which the
witness said was his property and acquired for his personal use,” said the
judge.
Theresho
Mashabela testified in a Limpopo magistrate’s court that she was at her
parental home on July 22, 2010, washing dishes, when about 30 police officers
arrived at the house. All but one were women. They told her they wanted to
search the house. The police found nothing, but insisted on going through the
house again, Mashabela said.
She asked
them what they were looking for, as they had just searched the house. She was
told she was disrespectful and Montjane slapped her and kicked her. The witness
said while the other officers again searched the house, Montjane kept on
assaulting her and forced her to open the fridges.
The
policewoman then pushed the young woman on to a bed, squirted pepper spray at
her and covered her face with a plastic bag. Mashabela said the bag was then
removed and she was ordered to face the male officer, who photographed her. She
was handcuffed and the handcuffs were removed only after her parents arrived at
the house and ordered the police to remove them.
She was
later taken by ambulance to a hospital.
Her father,
Hendrik Mashabela, testified that the police arrived at his spaza shop and
bought avocados and atchar, as they said they were hungry. He thought they were
going to eat their food before leaving, but the next moment he heard his
daughter screaming from the main house. He ran to her aid and found her
handcuffed.
When he
asked the police what they were doing in his house, they said they “searched
nowadays” and they did not provide a search warrant, as “people would hide
things”.
Montjane
acknowledged the police had searched the house for alcohol, but denied
assaulting the youngster. Her colleague and commander that day also denied the
assault and said “she would have never allowed it”.
But the
judge said the evidence clearly pointed to Montjane as being the assailant.
