Holy man wrongfully arrested, cops pay R250 000.Image:(AP Photo/Jon Super).
A police officer who admitted to arresting a pastor for violating a protection order he did not bother to ascertain if it existed has cost the taxpayer.
Benjamin Maganyele, a pastor in Soshanguve, spent three days in cells after his arrest in April 2018. He was arrested on allegations that he violated a protection order issued to his ex-wife.
But he knew nothing about the existence of this protection order. He sued the Minister of Police at the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, on the basis that police arrested him without confirming the existence of the protection order.
Maganyele also gave evidence that he was arrested without a warrant of arrest, despite the fact that the piece of legislation he was accused of contravening stipulated that it must be obtained.
This legislation is the Domestic Violence Act. Section 8 of the act stipulated that a warrant of arrest must be obtained before arresting a perpetrator.
Sergeant Sipho Skosana, the officer who arrested Maganyele, conceded that he knew little about the provisions of the Domestic Violence Act.
He also admitted to not seeing the protection order he nabbed Maganyele for violating.
In a judgment delivered this week, Acting Judge Kganki Phahlamohlaka detailed a slew of defects in the police’s defence that Maganyele was arrested lawfully.
“The problem with the defendant’s case is that when he effected the arrest, Sergeant Skosana had not satisfied himself that indeed the plaintiff had contravened the conditions of the interim protection order,” said Judge Phahlamohlaka.
“The defendant could not even present evidence that the protection order was served on the plaintiff and that the plaintiff was aware of its existence.”
Skosana testified that he arrested Maganyele based on a complaint by his ex-wife that he contravened a protection order by threatening her and taking her clothes.
He further testified that he did know if and when Maganyele was served with a protection order.
Judge Phahlamohlaka said it was clear that Skosana arrested Maganyele without even knowing the conditions of the said protection order.
“Worse, sergeant Skosana was not even aware that he had to have a warrant in order to arrest the plaintiff for contravening the conditions of a protection order,” said the judge.
“Sergeant Skosana admitted that he has very little knowledge in respect of the provisions of the Domestic Violence Act and the importance of a warrant of arrest authorised in terms of section 8 of the act.
“Section 8 of the Domestic Violence Act was promulgated for a reason. The police, therefore, have a duty once confronted with a situation where there is a complaint of contravention to ascertain first the existence of a protection order and the terms thereof.”
Judge Phahlamohlaka also considered the humiliation that Maganyele suffered during his arrest.
“In this case the plaintiff was detained for three days. He was a pastor of a church and he was arrested in full view of members of the public.
“I therefore consider an amount of R250 000 to be fair and reasonable as compensation for the damage he suffered,” he said.
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