A farmer wants R1m from the minister of police after he and his wife were attacked in their home by an intruder who was on bail.
|||A Levubu, Limpopo, farmer is claiming R1 million from the minister of police after he and his wife were attacked in their home by an intruder who a few months earlier had been granted bail in another case.
Carel Erasmus was twice shot by the intruder, Levi Baloyi, and wounded in the leg and chest. He survived the attack, and is blaming the incident on the police.
Erasmus said in papers before the Pretoria High Court had it not been for the shoddy police work and omissions of the investigating officer in Baloyi’s armed robbery case, he would not have been granted bail. It would also have made it impossible for him to attacthe couple, as he would have been in jail.
Baloyi and two co-accused appeared in the Louis Trichardt Regional Court on January 31, 2007, facing an armed robbery charge.
They were refused bail. Their case was postponed at least eight times as the State had not received all the evidence from police.
Baloyi’s two co-accused obtained bail about four months later, but he was refused bail. He was eventually granted R2 000 bail after he had been in custody for eight months and the trial still had not started. The magistrate at the time said he had no choice but to grant bail, as there was “an unreasonable delay”.
About two months later, on November 7, 2007, Baloyi allegedly broke into the farmhouse of the Erasmus couple. He was armed and threatened Erasmus with the firearm. The couple were told to “shut up” and he threatened to kill Erasmus. The farmer said Baloyi fired four shots at him. One hit him in the right upper leg, another in the upper chest.
The couple managed to over-power Baloyi and called the police.
In his damages claim, Erasmus said the police owed the public a duty of care to protect them from crime, and to keep criminals in jail.
Police had a duty to investigate the charges against Baloyi in his criminal trial to enable the State to effectively prosecute him, he said.
The investigating officer failed to properly investigate the charges, it was claimed. He also apparently failed to send DNA samples to be analysed, never supplied the State with fingerprint records, nor did he provide the prosecution with papers after an identity parade.
All these factors, it was said, contributed to the delays, which re-sulted in Baloyi’s being granted bail.
Erasmus blames the police minister, stating he failed to train the investigating officer properly on how to probe crime and how to place important facts before court to keep criminals off the streets.
Erasmus said if the police had done their job, he and his wife would not have been attacked by Baloyi.
In defending the claim, the police admitted a duty of care towards the public, but said there were several factors why the criminal trial was postponed time and again, which included that Baloyi was ill at some stage and battled to obtain legal aid.
They also denied negligence by the SAPS in their handling of the criminal case. Should the court find the SAPS negligent in causing the couple to be attacked, it should also find Erasmus contributed to this negligence as he should never have confronted an armed intruder, they argued. The case was postponed indefinitely. - Pretoria News