Justice after years of hell

A GA-RANKUWA teacher will receive R400 000 in damages from the police following her wrongful arrest for her husband’s murder three years after his death.

Rebecca Mpho Mole told the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, that she had to spend five fearful days in a filthy police cell before she was allowed to go home.

The magistrate’s court declined to prosecute her.

During her stay in prison, the 59-year-old said she was assaulted and tortured by the police who tried to get a confession out of her.

Mole said although her name was now cleared, she still suffered from the trauma of her ordeal and felt “naked” when she had to face the community.

Her husband was shot at the couple’s home in Ga-Rankuwa Heights in April 2005 after he had returned from a business meeting.

Three years later, her son told her that the police were at their house looking for her. She went to the police station the next day.

She said a plastic bag was pulled over her head and she was questioned for about 90 minutes, before being taken to a cell.

Mole noticed the word “Mpho” engraved on the floor inside the cell, and did not know if it was there all the time or meant for her.

Her children, who were small at the time, were so traumatised by her ordeal they had to receive counselling.

She is also concerned that others see her as a murderer and after all these years, it is difficult for her to come to terms with her ordeal.

Mole is still teaching and told the court that her colleagues were very supportive of her.