Cape Town - The state has decided not to prosecute the law enforcement officers involved in a scuffle that led to blind busker Lunga Goodman Nono’s guitar being broken, because the prosecutor could not find intent to cause malicious damage to property.
Nono, 51, was forcibly removed from his busking spot in July in St George’s Mall while his wife, Abigail Nono, wept, sparking a public outcry.
His guitar was broken in the scuffle after three law enforcement officers approached Nono and charged him with violating the city’s busking by-laws when he refused to move from his spot.
Last week, charges against him for the by-law offence were dropped. After the incident, Nono laid a complaint of malicious damage to property at the Cape Town police station against the officers.
But last week, he and his lawyer heard that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) would not proceed with the matter because there was “no reasonable prospect of successful prosecution”.
In a letter in the possession of the Cape Times, the prosecutor said he could not pursue the matter as there was no proof of intent to cause malicious damage to property.
The letter said: “In order to make out a case of malicious injury to property, to start off with, intent needs to be specifically made out and a basis laid for the same.
“If one looks at the version of the complainant and following the complainant’s wife’s own statement, it is clear that there appears to be
this crucial element of intent lacking.
“The guitar appeared to have been broken in a scuffle with police when the complainant resisted the police’s attempts to physically remove them from the spot after they refused to adhere to the police’s instructions.”
The prosecutor said it was clear that no further investigation was required.
On Monday, Nono told the Cape Times he had accepted the decision. “I have accepted it, but in the beginning I was really upset because I wanted to come face to face with them for them to explain why they had done what they did to me.”
He said he understood that the city would still deal with the officers.
In a statement, one of the law enforcement officers said when he arrived at Nono’s busking spot he was approached by an African woman, “telling me how cruel we are that we can take on a blind man trying to earn a living”. He said he explained to Abigail Nono about the by-law contravention and the fine and explained that the guitar would be impounded and what Nono could do to get it back.
The officer said she became angry. Later, the officer said, he saw her screaming when the officers were trying to get the guitar and she saw it had been broken.
In her statement to police, Abigail Nono said her husband had refused to leave when officers approached them saying they needed to move as there had been complaint from a business owner about noise.
She said officers had explained that if they did not move, they would take the guitar. Later the officers had grabbed Nono when he refused to give them the guitar, and it had been broken in the process. “After the guitar broke, they pulled him to the ground. I begged them to lift him,” she said.
Abigail Nono said one of the officers swore at her while another slapped her.
Executive director for safety and security Richard Bosman said the city’s own internal disciplinary hearing of the three officers was scheduled to start in the next two weeks.
The NPA said if Nono was not satisfied with the decision, he could ask for it to be reviewed by the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Cape Times