Pretoria -
A former chairman of the Hartbeespoort policing forum will receive R180 000 from the police after being unlawfully detained by officers seeking revenge against him.
The Pretoria High Court found that the revenge against Pieter Rautenbach was due to his insistence that a task force be set up to investigate corrupt police officers.
The SAPS members who caused his arrest were implicated in possible wrong-doing, and they apparently wanted to get back at Rautenbach.
He was arrested in October 2008 and locked up for two hours on a charge of intimidation and interfering with police duties. It took six months before the criminal charges against him could be withdrawn.
Acting Judge RM Keightley was so outraged by their conduct that he ordered that a copy of his judgment be handed over to the Police Department so that his comments regarding three policemen could be seen by their superiors, particularly his finding that they lacked credibility, and maliciously caused the prosecution of Rautenbach on false charges.
“I trust that this will have the desired effect and that the appropriate action will be taken against them. I particularly recommend that the minister take active steps to ensure that the defendants are held personally responsible for their financial obligations (to pay the damages).
“I do not see why the taxpayer should be held liable to fund this kind of conduct by police officers,” said the judge.
Before his arrest, Rautenbach placed an advertisement in a local newspaper in which he alerted the public to complaints about the conduct of certain police at Hartbeespoort police station.
These included that they threatened to arrest people who were complainants in criminal cases, and sought to extract bail money from them.
He asked residents with complaints to contact him.
A member of the public, who was threatened with arrest, later called Rautenbach.
Three police – Thomas Mokgatle, Petrus Makgopela and Kaelebogo Bohelo – claimed Rautenbach stormed into their office, shouting and making trouble. Rautenbach, in turn, claimed that while he was at the police station, he was never in the office of the officers.
Various witnesses corroborated his version.
The police officers’ only defence was that they told the truth and Rautenbach and the others did not, said Judge Keightley.
He said their performance in the witness box led him to reject their versions. The judge added that they were the authors of their own demise. He found they had falsely instituted charges against Rautenbach.
Pretoria News