A Mpumalanga man has been awarded more than R1.6 million in damages after he was unlawfully arrested on rape charges that were never prosecuted. The arrest left him jobless and socially ostracised for years. The Mpumalanga High Court, sitting in Mbombela, ruled in favour of Noah Mathebula Nkavdzi (“Nkavdzi”), and ordered the Minister of Police to pay R1 560 009 for unlawful arrest and detention, plus a further R100 000 for past loss of earnings.
Nkavdzi’s ordeal began on 20 March 2020, when he received a telephone call from a police officer at Thulamahashe Police Station asking him to come in. He was given no details of the nature of the case against him. Upon arrival, he was informed he faced a charge of rape and was subsequently charged. He testified that he did not know the complainants at all.
Because the holding cells at Thulamahashe were full, he was transferred to Calcutta Police Station. He made his first court appearance on 24 March 2020, after which the matter was postponed and he was returned to the cells. On 30 March 2020, he was moved again, this time to Nelspruit Correctional Services Centre, where he remained until his eventual release. He was never prosecuted.
Before his arrest, Nkavdzi had been earning R5 000 a month as a school driver. His employer, unable to wait out the legal uncertainty hanging over him, hired a replacement. What followed was a two-year period of unemployment, during which the pending criminal case shadowed every job application he made. His name was only cleared from police records in early 2025, nearly five years after the initial arrest.
The social toll was equally severe. Nkavdzi testified that the arrest eroded community trust in him and that the conditions in the cells had affected his health. He received no counselling at any point.
The court found the arrest to have been unlawful. It noted that the Minister of Police had not called the arresting officer to explain what factors had been weighed before the arrest was made. Drawing on the Supreme Court of Appeal’s ruling in Minister of Safety and Security v Sekhoto, the court emphasised that a police officer is not obliged to arrest simply because the jurisdictional requirements of the Criminal Procedure Act are met. A proper discretion must be exercised. In this case, no such explanation was offered, and the fact that charges were ultimately dropped without prosecution was, in the court’s view, telling.
In calculating damages for the detention, the court applied a rate of R30 000 per day in custody, a figure it considered reasonable in light of a recent North West High Court judgment that awarded R150 000 for five days’ detention.
The claim for future loss of earnings was dismissed. The court found that the arrest had not permanently impaired Nkavdzi’s ability to work, and that what he suffered was an interruption rather than a lasting loss of earning capacity. The Minister of Police was also ordered to cover the costs of expert witnesses as well as the full costs of litigation.
You can read the full Nkavdzi v Minister of Police judgement here.
Written by Theo Tembo
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