Two KZN men, who spent just short of seven years in custody before being acquitted of charges of rape and other crimes, have each been awarded R3.6m in damages. News24 says Siyabonga Latha and Mthandeni Hlongwa were 25 years old when they were arrested in 2006. 'They were approximately 32 years old by the time they were released (upon acquittal in May 2013). Six years and 11 months is indeed a long time to be deprived of one's liberty and personal freedom.

It is also a long time to be deprived of an opportunity to establish a career, to strengthen personal relationships and in general, to create a sense of self-worth and well-being,' Judge Rishi Seegobin, of the KZN High Court (Pietermaritzburg), said in his judgment. In 2016, Latha and Hlongwa sued the Ministers of Police, Justice & Correctional Services and the National Director of Public Prosecutions, for past and future loss of earnings, malicious arrest and detention, deprivation of freedom, impairment to dignity and general damages for psychological trauma.

The Ministers conceded liability in May this year and the matter went to trial for the amount of damages to be determined. During their evidence, they spoke of how they had been taken to a sugar cane field and tortured. A police dog was set on Latha and he suffered serious bite wounds. They were also assaulted while detained at Tongaat and Ndwedwe police stations before being held at Westville Prison while their trial – which took five years – proceeded.

Under cross-examination, both conceded that they had been arrested for other, unrelated offences, prior to this. The judge said he had no qualms in accepting that both had been subjected to 'the most humiliating, degrading and dehumanising treatment at the hands of the police'.

Full News24 report