Johannesburg - A Zimbabwean man who was allegedly illegally arrested and detained by rogue police officers is suing the SAPS for R1 million.
Nathan Meda said Gauteng police commissioner Lieutenant-General Deliwe de Lange had failed to act on his 250-page dossier detailing the abuse and harassment he and his wife, Sherylie Tsungayi Ngorima, suffered at the hands of rogue policemen from Elsburg police station in Germiston.
Meda works for his wife who runs a small IT business that sells computers and LCD screens, among other products.
He said his problems started in September 2014 when Ngorima sold 10 screens to a client who came back with the police a month later, claiming the items belonged to the Department of Education and had been stolen.
The screens were bought from a supplier who imports them from New York City and Dubai, he explained.
As the screens bore a barcode reading “NYC Department of Education”, the police believed they were from the department, said Meda.
“I tried to reason with them that the screens were imported from New York, but the police said I talk too much.”
He was later arrested and spent about a week in Boksburg Prison before being released on R600 bail. He appeared in the Boksburg Magistrate’s Court in November and the case was postponed to December 8 and then withdrawn.
Determined to get justice, in March last year Meda laid a complaint against the police for illegal arrest and detention.
But that appeared to further compound his problems.
He later found out that his application to extend his Zimbabwean Special Dispensation Permit (ZSP) had been rejected by the Department of Home Affairs due to “a criminal offence committed under schedule 2: stolen property”.
This was according to a letter dated June 16, last year which The Star has seen.
He was given 10 days to leave the country.
“I was not found guilty by any court. Why a criminal offence? I was not convicted,” protested Meda.
After being sent from pillar to post and threatening to expose the police, Meda’s ZSP application was granted in September last year.
A police officer whose name is known to The Star allegedly told Meda that his bosses, including De Lange, were not doing anything about his complaints. “He (the police officer) said the top cops know about our situation but are sitting on it,” said Meda, who has a recording of a phone call conversation he had with De Lange recently.
De Lange could be heard on the recording saying she was not an investigating officer, when quizzed about the progress of Meda’s complaints against the police.
Meda demanded that his name be cleared of a criminal record and that he be given permanent residency.
De Lange’s spokesperson Colonel Noxolo Kweza confirmed that Meda sent a letter of demand to the SAPS via his attorney. “Police indicated that they would be defending the claim. However, Mr Meda has not pursued his claim.
“He has not issued summons on this matter. He has phoned the SAPS several times instead and was informed that this matter is being handled by a state attorney who is representing the SAPS.”