Pretoria - Did a Correctional Services officer hit a colleague in the face with a “giant” stapler during a meeting after the man pulled funny faces at him and made “gay gestures”?
This was the question the High Court in Pretoria had to grapple with when Thabakholo Ramasodi appealed against his conviction and suspended sentence for assault with intent to commit grievous bodily harm.
Ramasodi and his colleague, who was not named in the judgment, were at the time both employed at the Losperfontein Prison in the Brits area.
The case management committee of the department held a managerial meeting on September 3 last year, during which it was said Ramasodi hit his colleague in the face with a stapler.
He testified that the complainant provoked him at the meeting by pulling funny faces and laughing at him, while the chairman of the committee was talking to him (Ramasodi). His version is that he picked up the stapler and banged it on the desk, but denied hitting his colleague with it.
The chairman, only identified as a Mr Mopedi, testified that Ramasodi did strike the man “somewhere around the mouth” with the stapler. He said the accused wanted to strike the man a second time, but he (Mopedi) stopped him.
The court heard that the blow caused a laceration, which bled and the complainant had to go to the bathroom to wash off the blood.
Judge Neil Tuchten said the main criticism of the State’s case on appeal was the lack of corroborating evidence on the crucial issue as to whether the complainant suffered a blow to his face and suffered an injury. “I find it strange that the complainant, in this day when almost everyone has a cellphone with a camera, did not take a picture of his alleged injury or arranged for one to be taken,” the judge said.
His unease was heightened, the judge said, because the complainant said he went to a doctor who confirmed the injury. But this letter wasn’t produced in court.
There is no evidence whether the police noted an injury when the complainant laid a charge.
The magistrate who convicted Ramasodi found he did injure his colleague. “The accused was infuriated by the actions of the complainant because he was making gay gestures at him and pulling his face,” he said. But Judge Tuchten said Ramasodi’s version, that he banged the stapler on the desk, could be true. “I think that a man angered by such childish behaviour in a workplace meeting is generally more likely to make his feelings known in the way alleged by the appellant than by causing actual bodily harm,” the judge said
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The judge gave Ramasodi the benefit of the doubt and overturned his conviction and sentence.
Pretoria News