Court finds police liable for man's suffocation

THE taxpayer will once again have to foot the damages costs of more than R2.6 million awarded to the partner of a Nigerian citizen who was, on the face of it, suffocated to death by members of the police during a raid at his home.

- ZELDA VENTER

The SAPS simply gave a bare denial of being involved in the death of the man only identified by the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, as B.

They claimed that he took drugs and simply died after he had a seizure. But a postmortem report stated that he had no drugs in his system and that he had died of asphyxia.

The court, in awarding the damages, frowned upon the evidence of the police officers who were present when B died. It was noted that they were being far from frank with the court about what happened that day.

The life partner of B, the applicant in this case, told the court of the hardships she had to endure after his death.

She was pregnant at the time of the incident and she now has to make do with a social grant. B, who worked at a restaurant, had financially supported her before his death.