Pretoria - A Middelburg woman arrested while visiting a client and cuffed in full view of the public for “being at a known drug dealer’s house” is due to receive R540 000 in damages from the SAPS.
To add to her trauma, Juanita Wigg, now 32, was told by the two arresting officers that they would make sure that she did not get bail.
To make matters even worse, when they got to the police station, the two officers said she must be taken to the “toughest one” – a female officer who then conducted an intimate body search of her.
Wigg claimed R1 million in damages before the Mpumalanga High Court – sitting in Middelburg – following her ordeal. The police, in turn, did not dispute the fact that she was treated in this manner.
The only defence counsel for the police minister offered to the court, was against the R1m she claimed. The police offered to instead pay her R20 000, which was rejected by the court.
Wigg claimed damages for her unlawful arrest, impairment of dignity, loss of freedom, pain, suffering and the psychological trauma and humiliation she suffered as a result of the arrest and detention.
A crying Wigg, who is a sales representative, told the court that she went to drop a quotation off at a client’s house on the morning of April 30 2019, at around 8am.
As she left her client’s house, two police officers approached her and told her she was suspected of involvement in drugs, as one of the officers told her that she came out of a property belonging to a drug dealer.
Despite her denial of the accusations, the two policemen arrested and handcuffed her at the scene, which was in the street where people were passing by.
One officer took her phone and went through it, before he searched her handbag. She said she broke down and cried when the officers told her she was guilty, and that she would be arrested and not get bail.
Wigg said she was extremely scared and stressed as she feared that the two men could rape and kill her. She told the court that she felt completely vulnerable, helpless and embarrassed, as there were people looking at her while all of this was happening.
She was then handcuffed and thrown into a police vehicle.
On arrival at the Middelburg police station, the officers said she must be taken to the “toughest one”, referring to a female police captain to whom she was then taken.
Her protests were ignored and one of the officers told her she was free to sue them if she wanted.
The female officer instructed her to empty her pockets and take off her jacket, shoes and socks. She was instructed to remove her shirt and pull down her pants, which she did.
Wigg said the captain searched her in the bra, her breasts and underwear.
On finding nothing, the captain told her to get dressed. She was detained for about 40 minutes before she was instructed to go home.
The police at first told the court that she was lawfully arrested, as they saw her coming out of a drug dealer’s house. But this version was later abandoned as the SAPS admitted everything and said R20 000 in damages should be enough to appease her.
Judge MBG Langa questioned why the police needed to cuff this tiny woman, and why there was a need to humiliate her.
“This type of unruly behaviour by the police should not be tolerated, and must be discouraged at all costs,” the judge said. “Moreover, the manner in which they mocked her with their sneering remarks during the arrest, and the fact that no apology was offered to her also aggravates the aggressive nature of the arrest, and consequent violation of her rights.”
He added that although the body search was conducted by a female officer, it nevertheless constituted an unwarranted and avoidable invasion of her right to dignity, privacy and bodily integrity.
In ordering that she should receive R540 000 in damages, the judge said: “There is no doubt in my mind that the circumstances under which the arrest and detention took place call for stern censure.”
Pretoria News