Pretoria -
The High Court in Pretoria has heard how the police cut off a Rastafarian’s dreadlocks during a drug raid.
The minister of police has been ordered to pay R360 000 in damages - or R90 000 each - to four men who were beaten and humiliated by the police during the raid on a house in Porterville in the Western Cape in 2012.
Friends Jonathan Daniels and Jonathan Constable and brothers Evert and Adam Faro turned to the high court, saying they were still in shock and terrified of the police after their ordeal.
They told how police broke down the door of the house shared by Daniels and the Faros in the early hours of the morning, and said they were looking for drugs.
The four were woken up by the police who overturned their beds, kicked and punched them, and pulled them by the hair.
The police swore at the four, among others, calling their mothers rude names.
Adam testified that the police stormed their home, wearing black uniforms, helmets and balaclavas.
They had no visible identification and stuck guns into the four’s faces.
They demanded to know where the drugs were, but no drugs were found on the premises.
Pictures of the chaos the SAPS caused were handed to court.
Adam said he “cried like a baby” as the policemen pulled his head up by grabbing his hair.
He had been a Rastafarian for the past 25 years and had never cut his hair. He also had to watch his friend’s hair being cut by the police.
Daniels explained that he was lying on the floor with the police who demanded drugs such as Mandrax and tik.
The only thing they could find was a bag of mixed herbs used for medication.
One of the policemen found a pair of scissors and started cutting Daniels’ hair.
The scissors broke, but he was held down by three SAPS members.
“It was very painful while they were cutting my hair. I cried like a baby and my scalp was burning,” Daniels said. After the scissors broke, two policeman each took one of the blades and used that to saw-off his hair, he said.
In his judgment, Judge Bill Prinsloo said the four were Rastafarians and according to their customs did not cut their hair.
They wore it long in “dreadlocks”.
The four, who sold food and scrap metal for a living, had initially also claimed for medical expenses after they were assaulted by police. They subsequently abandoned this claim as they testified they had treated their own wounds because local doctors would not treat them.
The captain in charge that evening was adamant he saw nothing untoward. When confronted by the four’s allegations and pictures of the chaos in the house, he said: “I can’t be everywhere at the same time. I have people with me. That’s why I roam around… Things might happen that I do not see.”
Judge Prinsloo said it was clear the four deserved compensation.
He said R90 000 each seemed fair.
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