Police minister ordered to pay R3.3m for KZN man’s unlawful ‘hellhole’ imprisonment

The disturbing nature of our country’s police detention system has been thrust in the spotlight once again with the case of an assistant boilermaker who was maliciously detained and denied bail without an “iota of evidence” for nearly three years.

On Wednesday, the KwaZulu-Natal High Court, in Pietermaritzburg, instructed Police Minister Bheki Cele to fork out R3.36 million in damages to Mdunyiswa Mtolo.

This week’s order was delivered by Justice Robin Mossop who took over the case after the trial judge, Justice AJ Naidu’s term came to an end.

Innocent man suffers nightmare ordeal of unlawful detention

One could be forgiven for thinking that this nightmare ordeal comes straight out of a movie script, but for Mtolo it was an escapable real-life horror.

Mtolo was arrested in September 2011 on charges of housebreaking with intent to steal, theft of saddles, and theft of a motor vehicle.

Without proper proof of the crime, he was detained and denied bail until the housebreaking charges were withdrawn in June 2013. A year later in June 2014, while still behind bars, the vehicle theft charges were also withdrawn.

Police acted with ‘malice’

In 2021, the state finally admitted that Mtolo’s arrest, detention and prosecution were driven by the malicious intent of the police.

The court also heard how police officers and state witnesses lied during bail applications.

Police also said he had been arrested in the stolen car, when in actual fact, he was arrested at work, in front of his colleagues.

Cele and cops ‘conspired to fabricate evidence’

Judge Mossop wrote that Justice Naidu had been particularly unimpressed with the witnesses for the police, and he quoted an “illuminating and yet disturbing” section from his initial findings.

Naidu noted that the detention and prosecution of Mtolo strongly pointed to the possibility of former top cop Cele, a state witness and police officers acting in concert to fabricate evidence against Mtolo.

“Regarding the detention and prosecution of the plaintiff, the evidence points to [sic] strongly to the possibility that Bheki Cele, Leremu, Phungula and Sibiya, acting in concert, conspired to fabricate evidence against the plaintiff, which formed the basis for his detention and prosecution on charges of theft of the white Toyota Hilux motor vehicle and the theft of the saddles.

“There can be no debate about the fact that the defendant’s servants instigated the prosecution of the plaintiff on both charges.”

ALSO READ: SAPS ‘gravy plane’? Thabo Bester jet-setting to the very end

Police fail to present evidence

Mossop found that “there is not a single iota of independent and objective evidence against the plaintiff linking him with either the theft of the motor vehicle or the theft of the saddles, yet he was charged with both”.

Police also failed to present any evidence to dispute any of Mtolo’s claims against them during the case.

Former police minister Nathi Mthethwa was at the helm of the South African Police Service (Saps) at the time of Mtolo’s ordeal, while Cele served as the national police commissioner until his suspension in October 2011.

ALSO READ: Police Minister Bheki Cele should never have been appointed

Appalling conditions of detainment

Mtolo told the court that during his two years and eight months in detention, he was kept at the Camperdown and Plessislaer police stations for two days each without either being recorded in the record books.

 He recalled how the blankets were covered in vomit with blood splatters all over the cell.

According to Mtlolo, he witnessed police officers assaulting fellow detainees and was stuffed into the luggage compartment of a Saps Toyota Fortuner while being transported between police stations.

When he was transferred to the New Prison Correctional Centre, in Pietermaritzburg, he had to share a four-metre-squared cell with 10 inmates. Mtolo told the court that he paid R500 and 200 cigarettes to prison gangs each month to be spared of rape and assault.

Some evenings he would hear how other inmates were being stabbed, raped and beaten with a sock stuffed with keys.

ALSO READ: Bheki Cele claims NPA’s ID cleared him in R102 million spy equipment saga

Breakdown of cost

Mtolo will receive a payment of R3 million for the insult to dignity and deprivation of freedom resulting from malicious arrest and detention, R300,000 for the impairment of dignity, good name, and reputation due to malicious prosecution, and R67,200 for the loss of earnings.

The police have also been ordered to pay interest in the amount from the date of service of the summons against them until final payment is made, in addition to covering Mtolo’s legal costs.

ALSO READ: VIP assault ‘blood money’: Victim plans to sue Bheki Cele, Saps for R1m

Ministry of Police pays millions every year to victims of unlawful arrests

The shocking reality, however, is that Mtolo’s case is not an isolated incident. Closer scrutiny of the police’s annual reports reveals that our Ministry of Police award millions to victims of unlawful arrests every year.

According to the annual report for 2021/2022, R470 million was disbursed for 4598 payments to settle claims. Of this amount, R346.2 million was attributed to malicious arrest and detention, making these the largest component of payouts.

NOW READ: Crime stats: Murder and sex crime down, attempted murder spike