Marianne Merten
Urban terror is proving a boon for personal injury lawyers in Cape Town. This week, a group of policemen lodged a civil claim for almost R500E000 against People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) for injuries the officers claim they sustained in a clash three years ago.
The officers were wounded at the end of a long, tense summer’s day during a Pagad protest at Cape Town International airport. The demonstration turned nasty: police fired teargas and birdshot to disperse the crowd, which had gathered despite a ban by the then minister of transport Mac Maharaj. In the mle a journalist was bitten by a police dog. More than 25 protesters were arrested.
Late that night the Pagad contingent proceeded to the Bellville Magistrate’s Court to support its incarcerated colleagues. After a stand-off, with police locked behind the glass doors of the court, both sides opened fire on each other.
The plaintiff policemen are not only suing Pagad, but also the group’s national co-ordinator Abdus-Salaam Ebrahim and former leader Aslam Toefy for medical costs, loss of income, pain and suffering and interest.
According to legal opinion, it is not clear on what basis medical and hospital costs are claimed as policemen up until last month received free medical aid. One of the plaintiffs is the executor of the estate of one of the four injured policemen, who has since died in a car accident.
In documents before the Cape High Court, the claimants say the two Pagad leaders failed to control their members, search them for firearms and stop provocative remarks.
Pagad is more accustomed to lodging law suits than defending them. Earlier this year it filed two R3-million suits against the Cape Times and the SABC. The organisations released pictures of Walied Suleiman, who was detained for questioning about the Planet Hollywood bombing in August 1998. Suleiman, his wife and cousin were seized at Cape Town International airport within days of the blast, which killed two and wounded 25. Police released the trio without charging them and are still looking for the bombers.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, Penuell Maduna, and Oudtshoorn regional magistrate Mark Wyngaardt are facing a R2-million defamation claim related to remarks made when bail was refused to three of the five members arrested in the Klein Karoo in February. Allegedly the magistrate said, among other things, “the basis of the accuseds’ membership of Pagad amounted to treason”.
Pagad has also lodged a clutch of legal claims of about R100E000 each for various allegedly unlawful arrests of its members.