Pretoria - An encounter with the police at his Lynnwood home during which he was threatened with a gun and spat at left a man so traumatised that he is now virtually a recluse in desperate need of psychiatric intervention, the high court in Pretoria has heard.
“He is totally devastated after the aggressive, uncalled for intimidating incident,” Christiaan de Lange’s psychologist told Judge Cynthia Pretorius.
The judge remarked that the treatment the man had received at the hands of the police was shocking and humiliating. She ordered the police pay him R60 000 in damages, plus a further R40 000 so he could get intensive psychological treatment.
De Lange, 38, was living in his brother’s house at the time of the incident in July, 2014. There was a flat on the premises, which his brother rented to a couple. They had, however, absconded while being in arrears with their rent.
The brother had obtained a court order to attach their goods - which were still in the house - to sell and recover his outstanding rent.
On July 25, 2014, De Lange returned home and found an SAPS vehicle parked outside the house.
There was no one in the house and he walked to the flat on the property. There he met the couple who had rented the flat, carrying out their goods to a waiting bakkie.
De Lange phoned his brother who told him they were not allowed to take anything, as he had an attachment order in place.
De Lange went into the flat, where he encountered two SAPS officers - one wearing a bulletproof vest. He was at the time still on the phone with his brother and asked the officers their names. They refused to tell him and obscured their name tags.
The officers repeatedly told De Lange to “ f*** off” and they were extremely aggressive. De Lange said he could establish that the one was a Constable Matjea, who pushed him out of the bedroom.
De Lange said he ended the phone call as Matjea suddenly spat at him in the face, while continually swearing at him. He said he kept quiet as he did not want to aggravate the situation as he was afraid of physical harm.
He went out to the SAPS vehicle and was taking pictures of it when Matjea lunged at him, grabbed his arm and threatened to throw him into a cold police cell. He said the officer had his hand on his gun and threatened to shoot him in the head, while again spitting in his face.
Meanwhile, a security company arrived, causing the officer to back off. De Lange told the court he had feared for his life due to the threats and aggression of the officers.
He went to the charge office, where he spoke to a senior officer. The two officers who were at the home then arrived at the charge office and De Lange pointed them out to their senior.
He said the officer was simply not interested in assisting him.
De Lange’s brother, who heard most of the encounter over the phone, corroborated his brother’s evidence.
Matjea testified that he accompanied the couple to the flat to fetch their goods.
According to him, De Lange was aggressive towards him and his colleague, a Constable Makhubela.
He denied any wrongdoing and said he did what he had to do as De Lange was aggressive. He claimed De Lange “assaulted him” by waving his finger in his face.
Judge Pretorius said De Lange was a slightly built nervous man, who impressed the court. She could not say the same about the sturdily-built officer, who did not call his colleague to collaborate his version.