A neurosurgeon from Pretoria who has spent six years claiming he was unlawfully arrested en-route to the hospital to prepare for surgery during the Covid-19 lockdown has lost his case and been ordered by the judge to pay all costs, reports News24.
This week, the Gauteng High Court ruled that the arrest of Dr Anderson Chinedu Anyikwa was lawful and that his failure to use the “silver bullet” he claimed to have been carrying – a curfew travel exemption – was his own fault.
The doctor had been stopped and then detained for six hours, despite insisting he had a document on his person described by the court as “the panacea to all his ills”.
At midnight on 27 November 2020, Anyikwa, a senior registrar at Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital, was driving through Sunnyside, apparently on his way to the hospital to prepare for surgery.
Two police officers – Constable Sekwapa and Sergeant Mukanganyisi – saw the car driving past, and used sirens and flashing lights to pull it over.
The exact minute at which the vehicle was pulled over was disputed, with the police saying it was after midnight and the doctor saying it was before. However, less disputed was the doctor’s suspicion that the police in the marked police vehicle were not “genuine” police officers.
Accordingly, he called the 10111 emergency line at 00:49.
The two officers on the scene were radioed about the call, which Anyikwa overheard, prompting him to get out of his car and consent to a personal search. However, when asked to consent to a search of his vehicle, he refused, and a decision was made to take him to the Sunnyside police station, where he was told he was being arrested for breaching the Covid-19 regulations and handed a notice of his rights.
He stayed at the station until 7am and was released with a warning to appear in court.
Those charges against him were subsequently dropped.
Anyikwa, in court papers, said he produced both a valid Covid-19 curfew permit and his hospital staff ID card. The staff ID appears in the police docket, whereas the permit does not.
He filed a complaint with the Independent Police Investigative Directorate, which declined to investigate, and also sued the Police Minister for damages arising from what he said was an unlawful arrest.
In their testimony, Sekwapa and Mukanganyisi were adamant that the stop had occurred after the curfew was already in effect, which they said was why they had stopped him. They said they had spent no more than 10 minutes with him after the stop and had then gone to the police station.
The court found this coincided with the time of the 10111 call.
This week, Judge Anthony Millar dismissed his claim, reasoning that even if Anyikwa had possessed a valid curfew permit, his failure to produce it when required by the police officers was decisive.
The permit, the court found, would have had the effect of “the proverbial ‘silver bullet’ to any complaint relating to a breach of the curfew”.
Moreover, the court found it improbable that the doctor, handed a document at the police station which “clearly demonstrated” he was being detained for failing “to be confined to place of residence from 00:01 to 04:00 unless person has permission from the Minister,” did not immediately use his permit.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Prosecution proceeds against doctor ‘callously’ jailed while on emergency call
Unnatural deaths, alcohol bans and curfews during Covid-19 – SA study
Gauteng High Court overturns criminal record for breaking lockdown rules