Mossel Bay woman wins case against police for wrongful arrest

01 Feb 2016 | Admin Author

A Mossel Bay woman has won her case against the police for assault and unlawful arrest.
Debra Danti is suing the Safety and Security Minister and police officer Constable Vusumzi Ndala for R450 000, following the March 2007 incident in which she was pepper sprayed, and unlawfully arrested.
The quantum of the claim will be determined later.

The Cape High Court in George heard Danti, a mother of a three-month-old baby at the time, had witnessed an unconscious woman lying in Cesiko Street following a domestic dispute on March 16 2007. She telephoned the emergency services for assistance and police responded immediately.

It emerged that Danti implored the police to contact an ambulance, but instead they bundled her into a police vehicle.
Ndala claimed she became aggressive and was "wielding a stick". However, at no point during his testimony did he say he felt threatened.

As the police drove away, Danti claimed Ndala called her over to his vehicle and "pepper sprayed me in the face" - a fact that was not disputed by the officer or his partner, Constable MP Sindelo.
However he denied calling Danti over to the vehicle.

Danti testified that the pepper spray had caused her eyes and face to burn. She then walked to the satellite police station - known as CSC in Kwanoqaba - to report the assault.

At this time Ndala and Sindelo arrived at the CSC, where she pointed Ndala out as the officer who assaulted her. Ndala moved from behind the counter, sprayed her in the face again and hit her on her head with the canister.
Some of the other police officers present called on Ndala to stop, as he was holding onto her, and pulled him off her.
After being taken to an outside tap to wash her face by a female officer, Sindelo asked her where she was going. She told him she was returning home but he forced her into the back of a police van and placed her under arrest at the Da Gamaskop police station.

She begged him not to arrest her since she had a young baby at home, but Sindelo refused and told her she would only see her child the following Monday.

The two police officers claimed it was Danti who grabbed Ndala at the CSC, and arrested her for assaulting an officer.
However, in her judgment on Friday, Judge Judith Cloete said Danti "impressed as an honest and forthright witness. Unfortunately the same cannot be said of Ndala ..."
"The question is whether Ndala was justified in pepper-spraying the plaintiff for the second time ... the answer to this must be no," Cloete said.

"Ndala is not a person who reflects before he acts. It seems that Ndala only requires the minimum of provocation to haul out his pepper spray ..."
Cloete said Danti's arrest and detainment was unlawful because after she was handed over by Sindelo, she was not asked about her personal circumstances by any of the officers at Da Gamaskop station.

John Harvey