Learner misses an examination paper after police’s alleged wrongful detain
MANAPJANE – A Grade 9 learner at Ngwana Kwena Senior Secondary School in Manapjane village outside Marble Hall is livid after Motetema police allegedly wrongfully detained him at police holding cells, leading him to miss his Sepedi exanimation paper last Wednesday.
The learner, Fortune Nkwana, told the paper that his problem started last Tuesday after he finished writing an examination and left his school books with his friends at a local shop to get meals back at the school.
Nkwana said on his way back from getting meals at the school, he saw a police van, attached to Motetema police station, parked outside the shop where he had left his friends with the books.
The learner said when he got there, he realised that the police officers had his books and when he went to ask for them, he was told to come fetch them at the police station as they accused him of being part of a group that was playing a game of dice.
“I told them I was not part of those who were playing a game of dice as I was writing examinations and after that had left my books with my friends to go get meals at school. The police officers would not listen to me and instead forced me into the van. When I refuse to get inside the van they started assaulting me and used their pepper-spray on me,” said Nkwana.
The learner said the police took him to the station where he was placed in the waiting cell before his fingerprints were taken and sent to a holding cell.
“The following morning I was transported to a holding cell at Motetema Magistrates Court and I was surprised when I was released without appearing in court as I was told I did nothing wrong. I was supposed to have written my Sepedi paper 3 examination that morning but I missed it because of all this. My body is in pain from all the manhandling meted out against me as they forced me into the van,” said Nkwana.
Attempts to get comment from Limpopo provincial police were not successful at the time of going to press.