Durban - Two men who each spent seven years in prison because the police did not properly check their alibis are suing the minister of police and other government departments for more than R5.4 million.
Siyabonga Latha, 34, and Mthandeni Hlongwane, 33, allege in papers before the Pietermaritzburg High Court that they were brutally assaulted by police, arrested and then detained for seven years before being found not guilty.
Latha said that from the time he was caught, in 2006, he maintained that he could not have taken part in the rape he was questioned about because on that date, he was in jail for an unrelated offence.
But his version was not given a second thought.
Hlongwane had been charged on two separate counts of robbery, but on one of the dates, he too was in jail.
Both men stood trial together and were eventually acquitted in the Verulam Magistrate’s Court in 2013.
The court this week granted them permission to join the national and provincial director or public prosecutions as respondents.
The claim was also against the departments of Justice and Correctional Services.
Attorney Silvia da Silva said in court papers that on June 12, 2006, police kicked open Latha’s brother’s house door in Tongaat, calling out his name.
Latha went out and introduced himself.
He named the four policemen who were present and said he was slapped, handcuffed and hit on the chest with the butt of a gun.
He was put in the back of a police van and taken to the Buffelsdal sugar cane field. Police accused him of a rape on May 5.
He said he was in custody, having been arrested in March for being in possession of and/or receiving stolen property. He was released only on May 11.
Latha stood trial for that rape and for being in unlawful possession of a firearm and shotgun.
Da Silva added that he was brutally assaulted and a plastic glove was placed over his face. A police dog was set on him and he was bitten three times.
Hlongwane was apprehended a few hours after Latha, at 2am, by the same policemen. He too was taken to the plantation and “tortured”. He had been asked where the gun, stolen property and gold rings were.
He was charged with housebreaking with intent to rob on April 2 and May 5.
However, he was in custody during one of the offences. He had been arrested on March 27 for malicious injury to property, and was released on May 3.
Da Silva said both men were denied their right to a speedy trial and to their freedom. Steps were not taken to verify their alibi defences.
During their confinement, both endured hardship. Their cells were designed to accommodate 20, but there were 35 people and at times, more than 60.
They slept mostly on the floor. Both suffered extreme emotional trauma and would require counselling.
Lathe owned a tuck shop and Hlongwane was a truck driver when arrested. Both earned about R4 000 a month.
The breakdown of what they were claiming was identical. Both claimed amounts for unlawful arrest, assault and torture, impairment of dignity and reputation, deprivation of freedom, the diminution of the enjoyment of the amenities of life, past income and future counselling and psychiatric and medical treatment.
The Mercury