Ex-cop to pay damages for having man wrongly arrested

REVENGE is not always sweet as a Limpopo man discovered. He has to pay R200000 in damages after he had his neighbour falsely arrested.

He had a vendetta against the neighbour, had him nabbed for no reason and caused him to be locked up and maliciously prosecuted.

Johannes Claassens, a nature conservationist in Limpopo, will further receive another R400 000 in damages from the police after he was locked up in a cell for three days under harrowing circumstances.

Claassens, 67, was so traumatised after his ordeal that he broke down in tears on several occasions while testifying in court. He earlier turned to the Limpopo High Court sitting in Polokwane where he claimed damages from the SAPS and his neighbour, Frans Nakana.

The police and Nakana accepted full liability for subjecting Claassens to inhumane treatment for no reason. The only issue at the time was how much damages he should be awarded.

The court decided that R40000 was a fair amount for unlawful arrest and incarceration, and rejected a claim for malicious prosecution against Nakana.

Claassens, however, appealed this outcome and Limpopo Judge President Ephraim Makgoba ruled that R400 000 payable by the SAPS was fair. He said this was considering what Claassens had to endure and that Nakana, who had him falsely prosecuted for theft, should pay his neighbour R200000.

Claassens has been practising as a professional conservationist for 45 years. At the time of the arrest he was 60. Sixteen police officers in three vehicles came to arrest him at his farm in 2015.

Nakana, a former police officer, was also present and was the one who laid a complaint with the police. It emerged during the trial that Nakana had abused his connections with the SAPS to have Claassens arrested.

There had been bad blood between them for years, which included the fact that Claassens had reported Nakana to the authorities for allegedly illegally operating a poultry farm.

The arrest was made in the presence of Claassen's wife, son, employees and bystanders.

During the arrest Claassens was physically dragged out of his property and shoved into a police van. As his hands were cuffed behind his back, he struggled to get inside the vehicle and he seriously injured his elbow. This was the start of three days of hell. The officers drove at such a speed that Claassens fell around in the back of the police van.

At the police station he struggled to alight and shuffled on his buttocks to get out of the vehicle, much to the amusement of the police, the court was told.

He was thrown into a cell he shared with 22 other inmates.