Pretoria -
An appeal by a police constable against her conviction for an assault on a member of the public not only failed, but her attempt caused a Pretoria High Court acting judge to voice his dissatisfaction at the “police brutality” and “complete disrespect” shown for the privacy of a Limpopo family.
This was after 30 police officers – 29 women and one man – raided the home of a Limpopo spaza shop owner as they suspected he was selling alcohol illegally. They could find only one crate of beer in the house, which the owner said was for his consumption.
The police not only forced the man to pay a R300 fine on the spot, but one of the group, Constable Raesibe Bushy Montjane assaulted the homeowner’s young daughter.
His daughter was sprayed in the face with pepper spray, and slapped and kicked because she was “disrespectful” towards the police.
The young woman was so badly injured she had to receive treatment at a hospital.
Judge Piet van der Byl, in turning down Montjane’s appeal, said he was satisfied that what the evidence showed was nothing but police brutality and complete disrespect for the family’s privacy.
“The accused can regard herself lucky that she was not convicted on a charge of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm,” said Judge Van der Bijl.
He added that the policewoman was also lucky she had not received a heftier sentence than a R500 fine.
“It boggles the mind why such an extraordinarily large contingent consisting of 30 police officers was, amid the unacceptable wave of serious crime in our country, assigned to search the house of the witness and to force him to pay a fine of R300 after having found a measly case of beer in their house… which the witness said was his property and acquired for his personal use,” said the judge.
Theresho Mashabela testified in a Limpopo magistrate’s court that she was at her parental home on July 22, 2010, washing dishes, when about 30 police officers arrived at the house. All but one were women. They told her they wanted to search the house. The police found nothing, but insisted on going through the house again, Mashabela said.
She asked them what they were looking for, as they had just searched the house. She was told she was disrespectful and Montjane slapped her and kicked her. The witness said while the other officers again searched the house, Montjane kept on assaulting her and forced her to open the fridges.
The policewoman then pushed the young woman on to a bed, squirted pepper spray at her and covered her face with a plastic bag. Mashabela said the bag was then removed and she was ordered to face the male officer, who photographed her. She was handcuffed and the handcuffs were removed only after her parents arrived at the house and ordered the police to remove them.
She was later taken by ambulance to a hospital.
Her father, Hendrik Mashabela, testified that the police arrived at his spaza shop and bought avocados and atchar, as they said they were hungry. He thought they were going to eat their food before leaving, but the next moment he heard his daughter screaming from the main house. He ran to her aid and found her handcuffed.
When he asked the police what they were doing in his house, they said they “searched nowadays” and they did not provide a search warrant, as “people would hide things”.
Montjane acknowledged the police had searched the house for alcohol, but denied assaulting the youngster. Her colleague and commander that day also denied the assault and said “she would have never allowed it”.
But the judge said the evidence clearly pointed to Montjane as being the assailant.
Pretoria News