Weekly Mail’s news editor Anton Harber is suing the minister of Law and Order for damages in the first series of actions arising from assaults on journalists during the first elections for the House of Delegates in 1984.
Harber, who was the Rand Daily Mail’s political reporter, was assaulted by a group of vigilantes outside the Lenasia polling booth on election day, August 28, 1984.
He told Johannesburg magistrate’s court this week that police not only neglected to help him but acted in concert with the assault, in that they assaulted colleague Gary van Staden from the Star.
He is claiming R 5000 in damages from the minister who, he contends, is liable for the omission of his servants, the police. They failed, Harber says, for no good reason to intervene and stop the assault.
Van Staden will be taking similar legal action against the police and the outcome of this case will have a bearing on Van Staden’s.
Harber told the court he had been standing outside the polling booth when a group of about 100 demonstrators gathered. Police on the other side of the road told the group to disperse, giving them three minutes warning.
Police did not wait the full three minutes, said Harber, before crossing the road to disperse the demonstrators.
“I saw my colleague, Gary (van Staden, of the Star) lying on the ground. I went up to him and asked if he was OK. It was apparent he had been hit” Harber asked who had hit him and Van Staden pointed to a man.
Harber asked the man who he was, if he was a policeman. “I told him Gary and I were both journalists.”
“He threatened me … He was carrying a sjambok. His attitude was that he didn’t care if we were journalists,” Harber said.
While the interchange was taking place, the man turned towards another Star reporter, Jo-Anne Collinge, who was taking photographs. He grabbed the camera from around her neck and threw her and camera to the ground, Harber said.
“I tried to intervene, saying we were both journalists,” he said. “He then turned on me”.
Others joined in, some with sjamboks, but also with bare hands, Harber said.
Harber said there was nothing which prevented the policeman from seeing what had happened. “We were directly in front of them.”
At that stage, Harber said, Van Staden was being hit. “Then I was hit again. Both of us backed off … Gary was hit a few times by police returning from their charge.
“I stopped running and turned to face the people. They stood around me and continued to hit me,” Harber recalled. They were hitting him with sjamboks and vare hands, he said.
“Did any policeman make any attempt to help or assist you?” Harber’s counsel, Eric Dane, asked.
“No, on the contrary, they joined in, as far as Van Staden was concerned,” Harber answered.
Finally, one of the candidates helped him to safety.
Harber told the court he had suffered extensive bruising and cuts and had to be treated for pain. He had had to take time off work.