Police minister, NPA ordered to cough up after KZN teacher sues over spending 13 months in jail on false rape charge
12 August 2019
Patrick Buthelezi spent 13 months in jail for a crime he was eventually acquitted of. Now, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the police minister are going to have to pay him for damages.
According to court papers from the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg, Buthelezi was arrested in 2011 and detained on a charge of raping a nine-year-old pupil at the school where he was teaching in Umlazi, Durban. He was arrested on November 21, 2011, after presenting himself at the Bhekithemba police station after having been informed that the police had visited the school to look for him.
On December 12 of the same year, a judgment was handed down by the presiding magistrate in which bail was refused, as he had been charged a with a Schedule 6 offence - rape in this case - in terms of the Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977.
Following the refusal of bail, "the plaintiff remained incarcerated until the conclusion of his criminal trial on December 14, 2012, when he was eventually acquitted of the charges against him,'' reads Judge Mahendra Chetty's judgment.