Police, Mnquma held liable for unlawful arrest

THE police ministry and the embattled Mnquma Municipality have been found jointly liable for the unlawful arrest, detention and vicious assault of a 68-year-old Komga man.

Geoffrey Whittal is suing both Mnquma and the police ministry for about R1.3-million in damages, following an incident in Butterworth in 2013 in which police and Mnquma traffic officials slammed him to the ground, punched, kicked, stood on, and handled and handcuffed him so roughly his shoulder was dislocated twice. Mnquma Municipality was also found solely liable for damages arising from injuria for racist insults traffic officials hurled at Whittal who works at the Hardware Warehouse in Butterworth.

The municipality will also have to foot the bill for damages for malicious prosecution of Whittal after, in a twist of irony, the two traffic officials – identified in court papers only as traffic officer Gcilitshana and traffic officer Matoti charged him with assault, as well as crimen injuria, claiming that it was Whittal who had used racist language against them.

Whittal was acquitted after the magistrate rejected outright Matoti’s evidence that Whittal had called him the “K” word.

The magistrate described Matoti’s evidence as being of an extremely poor quality.

In Whittal’s damages claim, the merits were heard separately from the quantum.

The high court has now found both entities liable to cough up for the quantum of damages Whittal will now set out to prove.

At the time of the incident, Whittal had been particularly frail following two bouts of brain surgery, the flare up of a severe old knee injury and the fact that he had been overweight.

Whittal said on the day in question, a truck had arrived to offload bags of cement and had parked where the big trucks always parked in front of the warehouse.

A traffic patrol car had blocked the truck’s way and the two traffic officials accosted the driver.

When Matoti and Gcilitshana had climbed into the truck and removed the ignition key, Whittal admitted he was outraged and had demanded what they were doing.

He said Matoti had called him a “fat piece of white sh*t” and had pushed and punched him to the ground.

Police had arrived later and his hands were grabbed and forced behind him dislocating his shoulder. Someone stood on his head, walked on his back and then stood on his legs. Photographs taken by people at the scene confirmed this.

Battered and bleeding, he was roughly shoved onto the back of an open bakkie, “trussed like fowl”. Astonishingly, Gcilitshana later signed a sworn statement to police that Whittal had “no visible injuries”. He was released from detention late that night.

Whittal and all other witnesses – barring the traffic officials present – denied Whittal had ever used racist language or that he assaulted the traffic officials.

Matoti, despite being present in court, was not called to give evidence in the damages claim.

Pickering described Gcilitshana as a pathetic witness who “cut a sorry and defensive figure in the witness box, his evidence being contradictory, confusing, evasive and improbable. Matoti and Gcilitshana had clearly resorted to the “cowardly expedient of falsely accusing [Whittal] . . . to cover up their own wrongdoing”.

Whittal will now have to prove that his medical and other damages incurred in the matter amounted to R1.3-million.