Sergeant Ntshimane Mogale died on 27 August 2010 of serious head wounds on Schoeman Street, near the N4 Highway, in Hatfield. He was driving Roux's car when he was elbowed in the head. Mogale and two colleagues had just minutes earlier pulled the rugby player over for allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol.
But instead of reading the driver his rights, detaining him, having his blood drawn and locking him up at the nearest police station, the police officers decided to rob him – an exercise described by the state as a “criminal frolic of their own”.
Roux states in his plea agreement that he was never told that he was under arrest, and that Mogale repeatedly asked him for his bank card pin number – and when he refused to hand over the details, he was threatened with assault.
Roux said he realised that Mogale, despite being a policeman, was intent on perpetrating a very serious crime and that he might kill him. “The deceased proceeded to drive around with me and repeated the demand for the pin number of my bank card. When I saw the N4 Highway looming before us, I realised I was in a desperate situation. I resolved to defend myself by striking numerous blows with my elbow against against the left hand side of his head and face. My purpose was to incapacitate him so as to prevent the continuation of the kidnapping.”
When considering the matter, the state noted that Mogale and his colleagues were acting in breach of their duties as metro police officers.
Specific reference was made to the fact that “the crime was brought about in part by the unlawful conduct of the deceased, which on the one hand tends to ameliorate the moral blameworthiness of the accused to an extent.”
The state further noted that Roux is “a large person of unusual physical strength who, through no fault of his own... found himself in a situation of emergency which justified the application of physical force and is, in the circumstances, not indicative of inherent vice on the part of the accused.”
http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2013-08-08-bees-roux-a-study-in-black-and-white/#.UginU8saySM
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