The depleting state funds will be utilized to compensate for police mistakes once more. This time, police will be forced to pay R2.6 million in compensation to a man who was wrongfully imprisoned for two years for shooting a would-be robber in self-defense.
Ntokozo Patrick Xulu was the victim, but he never received the protection one would expect from the police, according to a judge sitting in Johannesburg’s Gauteng High Court.
After his life was devastated by the conduct of those who were sworn to safeguard the public, Judge Irene de Vos ordered that the police pay him R2.6 million.
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Xulu sought restitution for his unlawful arrest, incarceration, and prosecution by the SAPS. He told the judge that he was the victim of an attempted robbery outside his Berea house. Rodriguez was the robber. Xulu had twice attempted and failed to fight him off.
Xulu had shot and killed Rodriguez in self-defense after his attempts had failed. He was charged with Rodriguez’s murder and held for over two years before being acquitted.
Xulu stated that he had constantly told the police that he had acted in self-defense from the beginning. They had not listened to him. In addition, the SAPS failed to inform the prosecution that Xulu killed Rodriguez in self-defense.
The prosecution had persevered in his prosecution, despite the fact that police had kept them in the dark about Xulu’s defense. Xulu’s constant refrain throughout his testimony had been, “I told them, but no one would listen to me.” I was the victim of a crime, but they treated me as if I were the criminal.”
The SAPS member said that he was summoned to a shooting at the intersection of Lily and Abel Streets in Berea. When he arrived at the shooting scene, witnesses informed him that the shooter had fled in a maroon automobile.
He had been arrested, as the officer said the defense that Xulu was the victim, seemed “fanciful”.
However, when the evidence grew, the scales tipped, according to Judge De Vos. The shooting took place immediately outside Xulu’s house. He’d just gotten home from work. His house was directly across the street from Berea Park, a famously hazardous neighborhood.
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He had described being attacked by two assailants. The first had opened the rear seat passenger door, rushed in, and threatened Xulu with a knife. At the same time, a second assailant, Rodriguez, emerged at the window.
Xulu had attempted to push him away by opening the car door. Rodriguez had staggered backward, but undeterred, he regained his equilibrium and approached Xulu’s window once more. Xulu was confined inside the automobile and fired two warning shots into the air.
