Rapist lawman still with the NPA
‘I doubt I’ll ever run again,’ says man after a teargas canister damaged his shin bone, preventing him from completing his 20th Comrades Marathon. He was hurt in the Chatsworth march against crime sparked by 9-year-old Sadia Sukhraj's death in a hijacking
A63-YEAR-OLD Durban man’s hopes of running his 20th Comrades Marathon were dashed on Monday when a tear-gas canister fired into a crowd protesting outside Chatsworth police station broke his shin bone.
Rennie Govender’s hopes of joining the elusive “double green” club were shattered.
“I doubt I will ever run again,” said the grandfather, who lives in the neighbourhood where 9-year-old Sadia Sukhraj was shot dead in a hijacking.
Govender had joined a throng of about 1 000 people who had converged on the Chatsworth police station to demand improved policing. He left in an ambulance.
When the Sunday Tribune visited him at Westville Hospital on Thursday, he was forlorn about his leg injury and angry with the police. He had been roughly manhandled and even assaulted after being injured.
“The doctor says it will take six months to heal,” said Govender, who teared up talking about having completed 19 marathons.
Completing 10 races is viewed as an awesome feat, with the seasoned runners given green race numbers. Completing 20 earns the veteran marathon runners the “double green” accolade.
Govender said police should not have used force to disperse the protesters. He said he and his wife, Shirley, had joined the gathering at about 7pm and moved closer to the station entrance when he noticed a commotion.
“Many people were there for a long time and wanted to be addressed by the station’s head,” said Govender.
He said although people had become “boisterous”, they had not been violent. “Without warning, a tear-gas canister fired by police at this week’s protest outside the Chatsworth police station broke his shin bone. policeman fired a smoke bomb (teargas canister) at those standing near the gate. The canister bounced on the tarmac and struck my shin. It floored me,” said Govender.
“I tried to join those who had fled but couldn’t get up,” he said. When two police officers approached, he said he appealed to them to handle him with care.
“Please be careful. My leg is broken. Look, it’s dangling,” he had said.
Govender said the policemen dragged him to a parking lot. Instead of arranging medical attention, a police officer used a mop handle to tie a splint to his injured leg.
“I was left to lie on the floor between two cars, writhing in pain,” said Govender.
“An officer addressed as ‘brigadier’ said to me, ‘Ja, so you’re the one who caused trouble. Good, you deserve it. Leave him here,’ he told the others,” claimed Govender.
“When I responded it wasn’t me, an officer slapped me. Another kicked me and one stepped on my hand,” he alleged.
When Govender was struck by the projectile, the ensuing chaos had separated him from his wife. She didn’t know what had happened to him.
Govender said a pastor at the station lent him his phone to call a neighbour in the crowd who could alert his wife and have him taken to hospital.
However, policemen at the gate would not let the neighbour in, said Govender
When his wife Shirley, a hospital matron, realised what had happened, she urged the police to let her in. But they would not budge and eventually she got in by sneaking through a side gate.
“My husband was hypothermic. He had lost a lot of blood and was slipping in and out of consciousness. An ambulance eventually took him to hospital nearly four hours after he had been injured. He could have died if he had remained there any longer,” she said.
“The treatment we received from the police was appalling. We are considering laying charges.”
SAPS spokesperson Brigadier Jay Naidoo said: “All those who were injured were requested to report the matter to the nearest police station or the Independent Police Investigative Directorate for investigation.”
Ven Moodley, an executive member of the Chatsworth Athletics Club to which Govender belonged, said they were “devastated and saddened by the senseless injury to a harmless pensioner”.
Govender, who had retired in November after long-standing service with a Durban vehicle manufacturer, said: “I don’t regret joining the gathering… crime is rampant in our community. If it becomes necessary for me to join such gatherings in the future, I will.” A SENIOR Kwazulu-natal prosecutor recently sentenced to 13 years in jail for rape, bribery and defeating the ends of justice is still working for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
Senior public prosecutor Richard Sizwe Buthelezi was convicted in the Pietermaritzburg High Court in January.
During sentencing in April, Buthelezi received 10 years’ imprisonment for rape, five years for attempted rape, five years for corruption and a year for defeating the ends of justice.
Buthelezi was released on bail pending the outcome of an appeal against the sentence.
Until recently, he was still serving as a prosecutor in northern Kwazulu-natal and is now doing administration duties.
It emerged during Buthelezi’s trial that he had forced a young woman who was attending court with her boyfriend in 2013 to perform a lewd act in his office and allegedly attempted to rape her.
He then tried to bribe the woman and her boyfriend to prevent them from laying charges.
Although the Kwazulu-natal Director of Public Prosecutions, advocate Moipone Noko, recommended Buthelezi’s suspension in April, head office had not yet suspended him.
This is disclosed in correspondence between Noko and Lall Badrinarain, a security boss in Danhauser, northern KZN.
This was after Badrinarain had refused to have Buthelezi serving as a prosecutor in a case concerning him.
“I don’t believe someone like Buthelezi with a criminal record would be an objective person in court,” Badrinarain told the Sunday Tribune this week.
In her correspondece with Badrinarain, Noko said: “A day after the high court outcome, on April 5, I had written to our head office in Pretoria, requesting his suspension from the service pending his appeal.”
“As the DPP, I do not have the power to suspend officials; only head office has. So I can only put in a request for that, as I did in this case,” said Noko.
“This means that I have taken away his authority to prosecute in KZN. This is the only option that I have and what is within my powers to do under these circumstances,” said Noko.
“However, having not been suspended, he still goes to work, but is allocated duties other than prosecution,” wrote Noko.
The NPA’S chief director of communications, Bulelwa Makeke, said it was not accurate to say that Buthelezi continued to prosecute cases or undertake “normal duties” since he was confined to “administrative responsibilities”.
Elaborating, he said Buthelezi had been placed on precautionary suspension after his arrest in 2013 and then special leave. Buthelezi had subsequently claimed unfair suspension.
Disciplinary procedures against Buthelezi were set in motion from September 15, 2016, and a disciplinary hearing was now scheduled to sit from June 25 to 29 to finalise the matter, in compliance with the disciplinary code, Makeke said.
Mukoni Ratshitanga, spokesperson for Justice and Correctional Services Minister Michael Masutha, said his department was very concerned about Buthelezi’s matter.
“We hope that it is brought to finality speedily because it affects the image and the standing of the country’s justice system.
“Our department supports the withdrawal of Buthelezi’s prosecution delegation because we believe that someone who is accused of serious crimes cannot be a judicial officer.
“Our justice system must have integrity and such crimes undermine the integrity of the justice system,” said Ratshitanga.