R90 000 'is not enough'
2008-03-13 13:12
Bushbuckridge - A teenager, who was nearly deported to Mozambique after being called too dark to be a South African, has asked his mother to appeal the Pretoria High Court's decision that he be awarded R90 000 for damages.
Shane Mhaule, who is now 18, says the money is not enough.
"He instructed me to talk to my lawyers about the possibility of appealing, saying he was not happy with the amount, but I discouraged him because these things take years to conclude and we are sick and tired of the media attention," said his mother, 38-year-old teacher Kate Ndlovu.
On Monday, Judge Willie Seriti of the Pretoria High Court ruled that Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula pay Mhaule R90 000 in damages for being degraded and humiliated at the hands of the Belfast police.
Ndlovu had claimed R500 000 for her son's ordeal.
"I do believe that the Belfast police officers have got away lightly, so I asked my advocate if it would it be a good idea to appeal, but she told me that we could, but that the case would drag on for years and we'd end up getting the same amount or even less," she explained.
Her son is in matric this year and wants to study chartered accountancy when he's finished school.
Ndlovu said her son was hoping to use the money from the settlement to pay for his studies, but that they would use the R90 000 to build a house.
Mhaule's ordeal took place in 2004 when he was arrested at a roadblock in Belfast while travelling in a taxi from his home in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga, to Thembisa in Gauteng where he attended school. He was 14 at the time.
He was locked up for 30 hours at the Belfast police station with Mozambicans who were to be deported.
He was then moved to the Nelspruit police station, which is the usual point of departure for deportees.
He was rescued when local news agency African Eye News Service intervened.
"We knew that he was on his way from Belfast, and by then his mother was with me waiting for him at the Nelspruit police station," said former AENS journalist Riot Hlatshwayo.
Ndlovu and Hlatshwayo were referred to the Department of Home Affairs, and went to the regional offices to resolve the matter.
"Ironically, the home affairs official was as black as three nights put together and insisted that the boy would be deported even though we presented his birth certificate and his mother's ID. He eventually signed the papers when I told him that I was the media and would expose him," Hlatshwayo said.