Pretoria - The former owner of a Rastafarian vegetarian restaurant in Yeoville, Joburg, had his hopes dashed in a bid to receive more than R9 million in compensation from the police, after he was, more than 10 years ago, mistaken as a drug dealer and shot in the chest by the police.
Leonard Phekani instituted the multi million claim against the minister of police and two law-enforcement officers in the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg.
The police from the start admitted liability for shooting Phekani, and also for shooting and killing his chef, who was a passenger at the time when the SAPS gave chase to the car they were driving in.
The police earlier paid Phekani R100 000 for unlawful arrest and detention, as well as a further R400 000 as an interim amount pending the second leg of his claim.
During this leg, which was only now heard by the court, he claimed about R9.5m for loss of income.
He told the court that following the shooting incident and while he was recovering (under police guard) in hospital, his restaurant business could not continue. He also had a clothing shop, he said, which had to close its doors.
Phekani explained that he could not resume his restaurant business, as his clientele were mostly members of the Rastafarian community, who “shunned” him because they believed he was somehow guilty of drug charges.
Judge Avrielle Maier-Frawley, however, frowned upon his more than R9m claim, and the fact that there was no evidence that his health was such that he could not work ever again. She also questioned what he did with the money he had already received from the police during the settlement of his other claims.
“He sat back ostensibly in the hope and expectation of being awarded another R9 million at the conclusion of this trial. If there was any incentive not to work, that was surely it,” the judge said.
Phekani told the court that he was injured more than 10 years ago during a shooting incident in Yeoville following a police chase.
They fired shots at his car and Phekani only stopped after his passenger – his chef – was injured and killed during the shooting. Phekani was shot as he tried to run away.
He was taken to hospital where he underwent emergency surgery.
Although he was then under police guard, upon his discharge he was told he was free to go home as they had the wrong man.
The shooting incident was widely reported on social media and the whole Rastafarian community came to know about it. Phekani said he perceived that most of the Rastafarian community shunned him as they believed him to be a criminal.
Phekani said he never resumed either his clothing business or his restaurant when he came out of hospital, as the doctors told him to rest and that was what he did. Asked why he had not employed someone to assist him in running his businesses after the incident, Phekani said his main focus was on “healing himself”.
When asked whether he intended not to work for the rest of his life, he said he was no longer physically able to do so.
The judge said the difficulty with this argument was that no medical or factual evidence was presented to support the conclusion that he is unemployable.
She also questioned what he had done with the half a million rand paid to him earlier by the SAPS.
Instead of R9m, the judge ordered that he receive a further R500 000 in total for this final leg of his claim, as she accepted that he had suffered some loss when his restaurant was closed while he was in hospital.
Pretoria News