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Botswana: Police Accused of Assaulting an Inmate
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The Voice (Francistown)
13 May 2008
Posted to the web 13 May 2008
Francinah Baaitse
Francistown
Three Old Naledi senior police officers and two special constabularies have been accused of cooking up a truant charge against a former cell detainee in an effort to block a disciplinary act against them.
It all started on December 7 last year after the serious crimes squad locked Tlotlo Madisa in the Old Naledi holding cells after allegedly being found in possession of illegal arms and ammunition. A scream by Madisa for water led to a serious battle between him and the police officers who claim they were only trying to restrain him from escaping from legal detention.
Special constable Thabo Mokgatle is the one who is said to have suffered most blows from Madisa and logged an assault case against him. A Broadhurst Magistrate court heard the case on Tuesday.
Although Madisa was bleeding from the face owing to the tussle, his defense council, Ookeditse Maphakwane, averred that the police failed to take him for medical attention in time and did not take him to Princess Marina Hospital where he had been refereed to by the clinic. Mokgatle, however, was sent to the clinic the very same day. Sgt Mackenzie Ntu, a constable then, was the first police officer to attend to Madisa when he called for water from the cells. It is his statement that he heard a scream when he was passing by the cells and that, upon closer inspection by himself, nobody came forth. He said when he got back to the office, Madisa started rapping and banging on the cell doors.
Ntu then called two special constables to accompany him to the cells. Madisa is said to have identified himself as the one who had been trying to attract attention by banging on the door. The police claim that Madisa started talking to them in a harsh and aggressive manner and demanded to be taken to the Serious Crimes (SCS) offices. He was told the SCS officers were on their way to attend to him, but he allegedly attempted to push his way out of the holding cell at the same time head butting Mokgatle on the forehead.
The other two officers, Ntu and special constable Kesegofetse Wamaradu, who were also blocking the doorway, grabbed him by both hands and forced him to get back into the cell, an exercise Ntu said was not so successful as he said the detainee gave Mokgatle another blow. As the fight heated up, Sgt Kgathi and Inspector Pilane Mackson came to the scene and attempted to calm the tension. At that point, the public was able to view the whole struggle as and Madisa landed another blow on Mokgatle.
However, Madisa, through Maphakwane, claim that as the two officers grabbed him by both arms Mokgatle then caught him by his throat and choked him. He said he only hit Mokgatle on the forehead accidentally as he gasped for breath from the choking. He denied ever splitting Mokgatle's lips with a fist and the police medical report form, which was brought in as evidence, did not mention any bruises on Mokgatle's lips but on the forehead. Mokgatle argued that it was because the doctor filled the report a week later, on the 13th.
Maphakwane also put it to Mokgatle that he was used by other police officers as a decoy. According to him, Police officers felt irritated by Madisa who only demanded medication.
"As an ulcer patient he was weak. He wanted the medicine he had long craved for since he had been detained for more than five hours."
He said the officers thought he was being unruly, threatening the peace, making noise and, more so, was deemed to be a dangerous man who deserved to die in the cells.
It is his contention that Kgathi had ordered the junior officers to deny the detainee any service and hence the reason they could not give him water or his medicine. He contended that when Madisa called for water and banged on the door, no service was rendered to him but, instead, Ntu told him he was not in the garage and that if he continued hitting the door he would suffer the consequences.
He also said although they thought he was a dangerous man, the SCS later cleared him of the charge.
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Madisa is now threatening to turn the tables on the police officers as Maphakwane revealed that Madisa also has a similar case against them at police headquarters and the SKKA.
However, he argued that the officers lodged an assault case against his client after he (Madisa) made a complaint to the police commissioner.
The hearing was adjourned to Saturday 24th May because the state counsel, Tshepanang Modise, failed to bring in the other three witnesses.
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