On Friday the 17th of April, exactly a week after having been issued with 'Final Notice' I drove to the magistrate's court in Hillbrow. This was to be my first appearance ever in a court room and I was actually looking forward to it (thinking it must be a rational, intellectual process with reasonable and logical tests etc). We left at around 8am driving along Louis Botha most of the way. I don't often venture into the Johannesburg CBD - I find it a pretty grim place.
We got a little lost but still found the red brick building glowing in the early autumn sun at around 8:30am. A black man seated outside the building wanted to see my documents, and when I asked how long he thought the process would take he confidently said, "All day. You will be here all day."
Thanks to hastily scribbled instructions on a small white square post-it, my girlfriend and I found our way to the prosecutors office. You could immediately see he was a well-meaning fellow but he was taking strain. I quickly introduced myself and the case but he quickly pointed out that the docket had not yet arrived at the court and he could not speak to us until it had arrived and he had a chance to read it.
As had happened the previous day, we waited for the detective to arrive and he finally arrived at close to 9am.
The above picture was taken on the 16th in Norwood just outside the area where non-prisoners are not allowed. The officer was intent on having me arrested and booked.
The officer arrived, as I say, dropped off the docket and immediately left, without so much as a glance at my girlfriend or me. It was very odd that for the duration I had been detained at the police station the previous day, my girlfriend had waited for my release - the officer had not once attempted to take her statement (as the witness I had indicated).
The magistrate took some time to pore over the various dockets on his table, during which time a lawyer, an amenable black fellow that reminded me of Tito Mboweni (a sort of beaming face). I asked the man whether he enjoyed his job (since I had studied law for a year and had been tested at university and told I had an aptitude for the law). He told us it involved a huge amount of reading and that one had to stick, rigidly, to previous case material. He said the law was not very flexible, but at least you knew where you stood with it.
From where we were seated we were faced with the above notice. At about 9:30am the prosecutor called us in and asked me to plead my case (not in a courtroom, in his office). I provided him with a few documents and photographs. He read these in silence for about 5 minutes. He then asked if he could make copies of the documents. And then he told us how unprofessionally the investigation had been conducted. He said there was a problem that my girlfriend had not been asked for a statement, nor the other tenants on the property. Worst of all he said there was no basis for the accusation seeing as though there were no eyewitnesses. "Not even the woman making the charge against you saw what she alleges you did. She admits not even being there. Even the guard did not see you damage anything." He told us he would ask the detective to complete the investigation (on 20 April he still has not attempted to get a statement from my girlfriend).
And, he said, he was striking the docket off the roll (both the accusation of malicious damage and the even more incomplete docket averring intimidation)and that we were free to go immediately.
I told him that I found it troubling that a mere accusation could result in the experience I had endured the day before - jail time. He said that unfortunately the legal process was not perfect but acknowledged that we had cause to claim for harassment (both against the slum lord and the police).
I told him that the bottom line of this case was that the slum lord was trying to get rid of me and make life so unpleasant that I would run away and not look back (i.o.w voluntarily relinquish my claim to my deposit). He suggested I immediately go to Fox street to fill in documents to sue for my deposit. He also said, as a parting statement 'julle het my innige sympatie'.
I did not go to Fox Street as it was already mid-morning and I needed to get back to work. So much for being there all day. I took a few photos on the walk back to the car.
The magazine article below demonstrates the conditions Americans are facing as the recession deepens. It is likely that more and more people will begin bickering over money and accommodation in the petty style that I have experienced.
On Sunday my girlfriend and I went for a picnic at the war memorial in Johannesburg. We lay a blanket out under a mossy tree and whilst sipping wine and eating chicken wings and cocktail sausages we watched sacred ibis swoop over the lawns and various deer moving about in the zoo compound adjacent to our park. I remarked to my girlfriend how people need to escape man-made environments in order to de-stress, to heal, to rest. That we need to get away from even the environments we choose and make for ourselves. That nature is the ultimate source of creativity, an elixir for the spirit. It was the first time I had picnicked in Johannesburg and it took an hour in jail to release I was too dom to make use of the freedom to do exactly that.
No comments:
Post a Comment