The office of the Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions in Thohoyandou has left Mirror's journalist, Nthambeleni Gabara shocked, when it declined to prosecute Insp Tshivhidzo Curthbert Ramabulana, who attacked Gabara and threw his camera on the court room’s floor of the Tshilwavhusiku Magistrate’s Court on January 18 this year.

Ramabulana (40) who is attached to the crime prevention branch at theTshilwavhusiku SAPS, was arrested after he had allegedly shot and killed a 15-year-old boy, Ndivhuwo Maeba of Tshikwarani Village. The boy was returning from a tavern in the early hours of 11 December, 2005, when he was shot. However, the police statement claimed that Ramabulana found the deceased with a group of other boys quarrelling with his daughter and ordered them to leave his teenage daughter alone, before he fired “warning shots”. One bullet hit the deceased in the head and he died instantly.

After magistrate RE Nemushungwa adjourned the court on January 18, Gabara quickly went outside the court room to wait for Ramabulana and when the police inspector saw Gabara next to the court room's door, he returned to the court room and closed the door, but the reporter managed to get inside. “As my camera was on and I had my finger on the button, he came running, asking me what I was trying to do, further telling me that he would break my camera. Suddenly, he grabbed the camera and we struggled until he managed to take it from me. When he had taken it, he threw it down. Fortunately, it first fell on top of the chair just behind the witness box, before it fell onto the court room floor,” said Gabara.

When he received a four-sentence letter from the Director of Public Prosecutions last week, a disappointed Gabara said that it seems as if the local office of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) does not value the importance of the freedom of the media.

The letter from the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions read as follows: Your reference number 0494762-7 dated 30 January 2006 (and received on the 07 March 2006 refers). The Deputy Director Public Prosecutions remarks as follows: “I decline to prosecute Tshivhidzo Curthbert Ramabulana.” The police docket Tshilwavhusiku CR/CAS 98/01/2006 is returned herewith.”