In yet another successful claim for unlawful arrest against the South African Police Service (SAPS) in Limpopo, the Minister of Police and a police captain this time have to fork out over half a million rand in damages.

The North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria handed down judgement in favour of 32-year-old Mr Rassie van der Laarse, an employee of Nomad Freight Musina (Pty) Ltd, on Friday, 18 October.

Van der Laarse was unlawfully arrested by Capt. Edward Sello Sekelele (second defendant in the case), an SAPS captain stationed at the police’s border control area at Beit Bridge, in May 2010. He was detained for almost three days in what Judge A J Eberson described as “horrifying circumstances” in his judgement. He had harsh words with regard to Sekelele in his judgement. “It is common cause that the plaintiff [Van der Laarse] was treated very cruelly and under horrifying circumstances from the moment of his arrest, which took place in the presence of acquaintances of his, by the second defendant and his subordinates. He was detained in a hopelessly overcrowded container under filthy conditions. He was arrested by the second respondent [Sekelele] who acted as if he was power drunk and in a disgraceful display to all those who held what was going on. The Court can only hope that the matter somewhere along the line receives attention from some senior officer, for the conduct of the second defendant cannot be left unpunished and he is particularly unsuited to be an officer and to be in charge anywhere,” Judge Eberson said.

Van der Laarse was arrested without a warrant by Sekelele on Friday, 21 May, 2010 in the natural area at the border on a host of charges relating to the Fire Arms Control Act. Van der Laarse brought weapons into South Africa for a client. Most of the weapons were licenced in South Africa, but some were only licensed in Zimbabwe. At no stage did Van der Laarse try and deceive the police about the weapons kept in a safe in his vehicle. He had all the necessary documentation for all the weapons, never left the neutral area and was in the process of sorting out the paper work. For three days prior to his arrest, he tried to convince the police to hold the weapons in safe keeping, but they refused.

Van der Laarse was arrested at 16:40 on the said Friday by Sekelele, who blatantly refused to look at or acknowledge the weapons' documentation. First Van der Laarse was detained at the Beit Bridge SAPS's facility, from where he was moved to the Musina SAPS. Here he was detained in a 6m x 2m container, together with 23 other detainees in 40°C temperatures until Monday, 24 May, 2010 at 09:00, when he was finally released on bail of R3 000. During his detainment in the container, Van der Laarse was robbed of all his personal belongings by fellow detainees. All the detainees had to sleep like sardines packed next to each other, unable to even bend their knees and their heads and feet pushing up against the sides of the container. Due to the overcrowded conditions, three detainees had to sleep sitting upright in the overflowing toilet in the container. Prior to this, when Van der Laarse was first detained at Beit Bridge, he had a bench pulled out from underneath him by police, who told him: “You don’t deserve to sit!”

Following his arrest, a court battle ensued. The matter was provisionally withdrawn by the state prosecutor in Musina on 17 March 2011 and finally withdrawn by the senior prosecutor in Thohoyandou on 8 November 2011.

In the meantime (October 2010), Van der Laarse had already issued a summons against the Minister of Police (first defendant) and Sekelele, wherein he claimed R200 000 in respect of loss of liberty, R150 000 in respect of contumelia (a lack of politeness) and injury to his reputation, R58 310.05 in respect of legal costs to defend himself in court until the matter was withdrawn on 17 March, and R5 851.96 for legal costs regarding his bail application.

In his judgement last week, Judge Eberson finally awarded Van der Laarse general damages in the amount of R280 000, and R58 310.05 and R5 851.96 respectively in respect of his legal cost incurred, bringing the amount payable to R344 162.01, with interest thereon (about R160 000) at the rate of 15,5% per annum, calculated from 20 October 2010 (the date upon which the SAPS acknowledged receipt of Van der Laarse’s summons against the two defendants). Both the Minister of Police and Sekelele were also ordered to pay the cost of the action, jointly and severally, payment by the one absolving the other.

“The amounts claimed by the plaintiff are, for all intents and purposes, reasonable when compared to the awards made in other cases, especially when the gruesomeness of what the police officers did to the plaintiff and the circumstances under which he was detained are taken into account,” Judge Eberson said.

In most cases, interest is only charged on the awarded amount for the day of judgement. In this case, interest was charged from the day the SAPS acknowledged receipt of the summons against them. “This rarely happens. From this I deduct Judge Eberson’s clear disgust for the actions of Sekelele,” said Mr André Naude of Coxwell, Steyn, Vise & Naudé, who acted as Van der Laarse’s attorneys.