Pretoria -
A former chairman of the
Hartbeespoort policing forum will receive R180 000 from the police after being
unlawfully detained by officers seeking revenge against him.
The Pretoria High Court found
that the revenge against Pieter Rautenbach was due to his insistence that a
task force be set up to investigate corrupt police officers.
The SAPS members who caused his
arrest were implicated in possible wrong-doing, and they apparently wanted to
get back at Rautenbach.
He was arrested in October 2008
and locked up for two hours on a charge of intimidation and interfering with
police duties. It took six months before the criminal charges against him could
be withdrawn.
Acting Judge RM Keightley was
so outraged by their conduct that he ordered that a copy of his judgment be
handed over to the Police Department so that his comments regarding three
policemen could be seen by their superiors, particularly his finding that they
lacked credibility, and maliciously caused the prosecution of Rautenbach on
false charges.
“I trust that this will have
the desired effect and that the appropriate action will be taken against them.
I particularly recommend that the minister take active steps to ensure that the
defendants are held personally responsible for their financial obligations (to
pay the damages).
“I do not see why the taxpayer
should be held liable to fund this kind of conduct by police officers,” said
the judge.
Before his arrest, Rautenbach
placed an advertisement in a local newspaper in which he alerted the public to
complaints about the conduct of certain police at Hartbeespoort police station.
These included that they
threatened to arrest people who were complainants in criminal cases, and sought
to extract bail money from them.
He asked residents with
complaints to contact him.
A member of the public, who was
threatened with arrest, later called Rautenbach.
Three police – Thomas Mokgatle,
Petrus Makgopela and Kaelebogo Bohelo – claimed Rautenbach stormed into their
office, shouting and making trouble. Rautenbach, in turn, claimed that while he
was at the police station, he was never in the office of the officers.
Various witnesses corroborated
his version.
The police officers’ only
defence was that they told the truth and Rautenbach and the others did not, said
Judge Keightley.
He said their performance in
the witness box led him to reject their versions. The judge added that they
were the authors of their own demise. He found they had falsely instituted
charges against Rautenbach
