Police sued after cop kills ZCC priest
August 7 2013 at 10:11am
By ZELDA VENTER
By ZELDA VENTER
Pretoria - The
taxpayer will have to foot the bill for an on-duty policeman who shot dead a
priest of the Zion Christian Church after accusing the clergyman of having an
affair with his wife.
Inspector Frans
Duba took an unmarked police vehicle and drove to the Seshego home of Elia
Morudu in Limpopo on December 24, 2001.
He was on
standby duty at the time and shot Morudu with his private firearm.
Morudu’s widow,
Pauline, and his four children are claiming damages for loss of support – no
amount given at this stage – from the police.
They told the
Pretoria High Court that the minister of police (in his official capacity)
should be held liable for the priest’s death, as Duba was on duty at the time
and drove to the house in an official police vehicle.
The court had
to determine whether Duba, in killing the priest, acted in his capacity as a
police official or not and whether the minister should be held responsible for
his actions.
The widow
testified that she met Duba for the first time when he came to their home, in a
police vehicle, to tell her that her husband was having an affair with his
wife.
The woman said
she was not aware of such an affair.
But a few days
later the policeman again arrived at their house – this time firing shots at
her husband, who was still in bed.
The bullets
were flying through the bedroom window and she ran to the neighbour’s home, she
said. She saw Duba outside. She also recognised the white police vehicle.
When she
returned to her house, she found her husband lying in a pool of blood.
One of the
children, Portia Khumalo, testified that she heard her mother screaming in the
bedroom and saw her father locking himself in the bathroom.
Khumalo then
saw Duba climbing through the bathroom window, looking for her father.
The priest ran
back to the main bedroom, with the policeman following him, she said.
Khumalo said
she heard a number of shots and saw her father lying in a pool of blood on the
kitchen floor.
A captain at
the Polokwane Local Criminal Centre – where Duba worked as a fingerprint expert
– testified that Duba was on standby duty that day.
After the
shooting, Duba returned to the barracks where he lived, bleeding from his arm.
He told a
colleague that he had just shot a man.
According to
the captain, Duba did not have authorisation when he drove the vehicle to the
house to commit the murder. He said the vehicle was to be used only for
official police duties.
Acting Judge DS
Molefe said it was common cause that Duba, at the time of the incident, was a
policeman, that he was on standby duty (in another district) and that he was
given a police vehicle to perform his duties.
“Although Duba
was not allocated the Seshego district (where the victim lived) to render
standby services, I am of the view that this does not remove the connection of
the crime and his employment. This is because at the time of the commission of
the murder, Duba was on standby duty.
“Although
Duba’s murdering of the victim had nothing to do with his official duties, I am
of the view that there is a sufficiently close link between his act for his own
personal gratification and the business of the police,” the judge said.
He added that
Duba had previously also used an official vehicle to confront the priest and
commented that it was “disturbing” that the SAPS failed to notice that he used
the vehicle for that purpose.
“It is evident
that the police failed to exercise reasonable control or supervision over the
unauthorised use of state vehicles,” the judge said.
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