Unlawful arrest: prosecutor slammed

PRETORIA: A judge gave a Limpopo prosecutor a tongue lashing and said he had been malicious when he kept a single mother of two children behind bars “for as long as he could”.

The prosecutor’s actions will cost taxpayers R170 000 in damages.

This is after Judge Nelisa Mali ordered the National Director of Public Prosecutions to compensate the woman. The police minister must also pay R50 000 in damages to Joyce Sithole, for having been arrested “for no reason”.

It was claimed that Sithole, an unemployed mother of Magona Village in Limpopo, stole R430 out of the handbag of a teacher. The money went missing and the only “witnesses” were some pupils.

It emerged at the end that Sithole did not take the money, yet she was kept behind bars under appalling conditions for 12 days.

The prosecutor insisted he thought she was guilty, as money was found in her possession when she was placed in a cell. She signed a document admitting that money was found in her possession. Sithole had gone to the Tinyiko Primary School to see a money-lender. Money went missing from a teacher’s handbag that same day.

Following the allegations by the children that Sithole took the money, she was arrested and taken to the local police station. Sithole said police found the R700 she had borrowed from the lender on her.

Judge Mali said: “It appears that the prosecutor had to have the plaintiff detained at all costs.”

She called his actions reckless and malicious and said he was supposed to be a professional executing his duties in applying the law.

The judge said on the prosecutor’s own version Sithole was mentally disturbed.

He should have foreseen that subjecting her to detention could have been harmful to her.