Despite Minister Sydney Mufamadi’s best intentions, police lawyers persisted in fighting another losing battle in court, with taxpayers footing the bill. Mungo Soggot reports
RESIDENTS of a Cape Town squatter camp awaiting damages after police torched their homes in 1991 may finally see their money, following a last-minute decision by the police to drop their appeal against the ruling.
The police gave up the fight against the residents of the KTC squatter camp outside Cape Town after a six-year battle in which police lawyers ran up legal bills stretching well into six figures, and amounting to nearly half of what the sqatters are asking in compensation – R500 000.
Legal costs for the appeal alone could not be determined at the time of going to press, but are reported to be close to R200 000. All legal costs in the case are to be paid by the police, with the taxpayer ultimately footing the bill.
The battle is the latest example of the police legal machine fighting to the death claims against its officers – a practice Safety and Security Minister Sydney Mufamadi has vowed to end.
Mufamadi’s office has admitted that the ministry is struggling to wean the police from their costly and embarrassing litigation habits, especially in cases involving human rights abuses.
It is understood, however, that the residents’ legal team approached Mufamadi’s office and were initially told the police would not withdraw.
Mufamadi’s office was unavailable for comment this week, and police referred all queries to the Cape state attorney’s office.
The KTC saga began on a Saturday afternoon in October 1991 when a policeman fired a powerful signal flare into the shack of a resident, Enoch Hewu,who had been suspected of engaging in criminal activity. But the fire spread, and ended up destroying 39 other shacks as well. No one was injured.
The residents filed a claim for damages against the police. The case went to court in August 1993, was heard for 10 days and then postponed until June 1994 when evidence was heard and both sides argued their cases. The residents won, mainly on the strength of a spent flare casing found at the scene and traced to the police.
Judge Robin Marais – who did not deliver his judgment until October 1995 – declared the police liable, and ordered them to discuss paying damages.
Police responded by launching an appeal, asking for an extension of the court deadline because their lawyers had missed it. The squatters – represented by the Cape Town Legal Resources Centre – then applied to have the appeal struck down.
The appeal was eventually scheduled to be heard in July 1996, then rescheduled to last month because the supreme court had lost some of the trial records.
Senior and junior counsel for both sides had finished the bulk of their preparations for the trial when police made the decision to withdraw. The police’s legal team was headed by Charles Louw, SC, a frequent legal representative for the police. He also had been a member of the legal team in a four-year trial over police destabilisation in KTC which began in 1987. The case resulted in an out-of-court settlement
In the original hearing, Judge Marais had been confronted with contradictory evidence but eventually sided with the squatters whose “trump card” was the discarded flare casing.
The court heard that the police had become increasingly hostile to Hewu, whom they believed to be involved in criminal activities. The court also heard how a sergeant had threatened to kill Hewu, or burn his house, shortly before the attack.
At the start of his judgment Judge Marais said: “The implications of the factual disputes in this case are profoundly depressing.
“If the plaintiffs’ version as to how the fire started is true, members of the South African Police, with brazen contempt for their statutory obligation to protect the public and its property, deliberately set Hewu’s house alight simply in order to harass him …”