The Court of Appeal (CoA) has awarded a soldier who suffered humiliation under military training 10 years ago after being told to strip and walk like a gorilla P40,000 yesterday. Judge Monametsi Gaongalelwe said that the humiliation suffered by the victim both before and after the event was severe and as such still remains so during his judgment. He added that the sum of P20,000 was inadequate compensation for the humiliation suffered by the victim and that the court was entitled to interfere with the award made by the High Court. “In my view I consider the sum to be inadequate compensation as it is also pertinent to note that the money has lost value significantly with the passage of time,” he added in regards to the soldier being ordered to strip naked and walk like a gorilla in front of 500 of his peers a decade ago. Gaongalelwe further said that the initial claim for damages in the sum of P120,000 by the victim was too excessive and too extravagant for the case. He explained that even though the court established that what the victim went through was a deliberate aggression upon his personal dignity, the measure of the damages was only assessed as aggravated damages and not punitive damages as claimed before. “An award of damages in a case of unlawfully, intentionally and seriously impairing of another human being is meant to place the victim to the fullest possible extent in the same position he or she would have been in. But for the wrongful conduct and because of the peculiar circumstances of the ordeal the court is to consider aggravated damages,” he said. Mpho Dubane will be awarded the sum at the rate of 10 percent per annum calculable from the date of judgment to the date of payment in full. Dubane had taken the government to court after saying he was forced to strip naked in front of his colleagues while he was still a junior trainee at Pandamatenga in 2004. He challenged a ruling by the High Court that awarded him P20,000 which he argued was ‘too little’ looking at the ‘horrendous’ acts military trainers inflicted on him, that impaired and lowered his dignity and self-esteem in an unimaginable way. He appealed the judgment at the CoA through his lawyer Yul Shara.
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 13:28:21 +0000
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