LEBOGANG SEALE
C harges of intimidation, assault and malicious damage to property have been laid against a police officer – who testified in a case of nine police officers accused of kidnapping a suspected druglord – after he attacked a photographer from The Star yesterday.
Lieutenant-Colonel Pedro Magadidzha had earlier been berated in the Protea Magistrate’s Court for bungling a confession statement by one of the nine police officers accused of kidnapping an alleged druglord, selling his VW Golf and sharing the cash.
After the case was adjourned, Magadidzha charged at The Star’s photographer, Dumisani Sibeko, and wrestled his camera from him. Then he flung the camera, breaking its lens.
Magadidzha had tried to stop Sibeko from taking pictures of him. Sibeko laid charges against him at the Moroka police station.
Magadidzha testified in the case involving the nine police officers, including three females, who face charges of corruption, kidnapping, robbery with grievous circumstances and assault.
The charges relate to an incident on November 20, 2009 when the cops arrested Nigerian Okachukwu Ngenuka in Soweto’s Maponya Mall on suspicion of drug dealing and robbed him of his two cellphones and his VW Golf, which they sold for R25 000. They allegedly shared the cash.
They also allegedly punched Ngenuka’s lover, Yvonne Seeletsa, and threatened her with a toy snake.
According to the court papers, the officers pointed a firearm at Ngenuka, forced him into his vehicle and drove to various places before robbing him.
The Soweto cops, Rosta Muthaphuli, Jane Mavuna, Albert Selepe, Patience Manganyi, Comrade Mntambo, Elijah King Ndlovu, Gift Mashele, Richard Maswanganyi and Mpumelelo Clive Menelo, have been released on R5 000 bail each.
Yesterday, Mavuna’s attorney, Dolph Jonker, grilled Magadidzha on the confession statement that his client had made. Jonker tore into Magadidzha’s evidence that Mavuna had made the statement “freely and voluntarily” and without undue influence.
Jonker argued that Mavuna was not allowed the right to consult a lawyer when she took the statement, as her rights were not explained to her.
Magistrate Reginald Dama found that while Mavuna had made the statement without being influenced, he ruled that the statement could not be admissible as part of the evidence.
This, he explained, was because Magadidzha had committed a grievous mistake by omitting the word “used” when he wrote that whatever Mavuna said would be “… against her in court”.
As Magadidzha left the courtroom, he yelled at Sibeko: “Why are you taking pictures of me without permission?”
Sibeko recalled: “While I tried to explain, he charged at me. I tried to run away, but he grabbed my camera. As we wrestled for the camera, I fell down.
“As I was lying on the ground, he snatched my camera.”
Holding the camera firmly in his hands, Magadidzha then walked towards an office, demanding that Sibeko delete the pictures. Sibeko protested and another struggle ensued between the two.
As they were pushing and shoving, metro police officers intervened.
“Magadidzha tried to throw the camera over the fence, but it landed in the courtyard. I have had a couple of incidents of police interfering with my work, but this was particularly embarrassing because of the way he threw me on the ground in full view of the public,” Sibeko said.
The nine officers will be back in court on December 6.