E40 000 COMPENSATION FOR MUZI’S TOOTH

MANZINI - TUCOSWA Deputy Secretary General Muzi Mhlanga will get E40 000 instead of the E1million he was claiming from government for his tooth. 

This is because the court has ruled that government should compansate  Mhlanga a sum of E40 000. 

Mhlanga, who is also a former secretary general of the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT), lost the tooth in March 14, 2015 while attending a meeting for the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA), which was eventually quashed by the police.

Inspection

The ruling was issued by Judge Nkululeko Hlophe last Friday. He said the court conducted an inspection in loco at SNAT Centre, where the incident took place, but upon arrival, the area had been completely interfered with.  The judge said a bulldozer or grader had cleared the top soil and the car ports, where the mini-bus Mhlanga had been in had been parked.

“I managed to establish that the conduct amounting to an interference with the scene happened in June 11, 2020 (a day before the inspection in loco),” the judge said. He said it was very strange for this to have happened on the day they should have held the inspection in loco after the plaintiff had already been there and would have advised his former subordinates that the court was coming for the inspection the next day.

“It is strange that they would have gone to interfere with the scene in that manner and in the process cause a total change of what the setting had been before as a mere coincidence,” the judge said.

He said obviously, such conduct was unfortunate and in a way it compromised the observations of the court, which ended up being unable to ascertain how the mini-bus had been parked on the fateful day.  He said this was because there ended up being a dispute on how the mini-bus was parked visa-versa the SNAT building’s auditorium and the side door which was not necessarily the main one when those meant to hold the meeting inside the auditorium were evacuated. The court said, the plaintiff’s case was that the mini-bus had been parked so as  the southern part of SNAT Centre, which would be the Manzini Bus Rank’s view. 

Meanwhile, it said the defendant’s contention was that same was parked facing the eastern part of the SNAT Centre, which was Prince Mfanyana Hall.

Position

“The crucial aspect of this contested position of the bus had a lot to do with the view ordinary witnesses would have of the occurrences, particularly the assault of plaintiff.”

The judge said the dentist who attended to and extracted the plaintiff’s tooth or dislocated incisor was not led for him to clarify how the dislocation  ame about, including when it had been effected.

“It would be difficult, if not dangerous for this court to attribute same to the alleged assault by the police officers. This means that the plaintiff had not discharged the onus of proving his case virsa-versa, the dislocation of his incisor on a balance of probabilities,” the court said.

It added that in other words, it had not been shown that the dislocated incisor was attributed to the police officers. 

“There is only a strong suspicion it was, which is not enough for the law,” the court said. The court added that it had been argued that the assault was a very minor one, which at some instances occurred in situations where the plaintiff himself was resisting instructions from the police. 

“Be that as it may, one was not allowed to assault another, where same could not be justified in law.

“I cannot find as a fact that the injuries found on the plaintiff were a result of the assault,” the court said.

However, it said it could not ignore that the fact that Mhlanga was found with abrasions and bruises by the doctor on matters he was qualified to testify on and draw certain inferences in law. 

Exaggeration

He said it was also in dispute and an exaggeration that he (Mhlanga) was seen lying on the ground at some point, which is consistent with scuffling, hence the bruises and abrasions referred to by the doctor.

That being the case, the court said it seemed that the plaintiff’s claims only had to succeed to the extent of what it found to have been a minor assault to him. It said in keeping with the finding and bearing it in mind that there was hardly any special damages proved as opposed to general ones, it said it would make the following order covering the overall damages it found to have been inflicted on the plaintiff, which they would have been very minimal were it not for the abrasions on Mhlanga as found by the doctor.

“Consequently, I order that the defendant pays the plaintiff damages in the sum of E40 000 together with costs,” the court said.

In that regard, Mhlanga said the fact that the police had to go to court and account for their alleged action was enough. He said he wanted to set a precedent as they had been allegedly assaulted by the police in the past and no one had taken them to court. He added that for him, it had not been about money, but to make the police account for their conduct.

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