A hijack victim who was wounded and became a paraplegic when his captors had a shootout with policemen was awarded R308 750 for his unlawful arrest and detention in disgusting conditions. The award was made by Judge Sharmaine Balton in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Monday.

The Minister of Safety and Security must pay Sikhumbuzo Sibiya (25), R215 000 for 43 days during which he was detained in a dirty, overcrowded cell with about 60 awaiting trial prisoners in Pongola and R93 750 for being cuffed to hospital beds.

The minister must also pay the costs.

In March 2005, Sibiya was wounded during a murder and robbery at Pongola.

His hijackers put him in a getaway car and ran away, leaving him inside the vehicle and he was arrested.

Balton said: "Police treated him in an inhuman and degrading manner by ignoring his disability. "He was callously bundled into a small cell with 60 other people. He had no space to exercise and was forced to sleep on a blanket on the cold cement floor.

"He was not given medical attention or proper sanitary facilities ... he was subjected to degrading and humiliating conditions in a filthy cell in which he was unable to help himself."

Fellow prisoners gave him a two-litre ice-cream container with water to clean himself. His condition deteriorated due to lack of medical attention.

Initially he asked for medical assistance but his pleas were ignored and he stopped asking. He used nappies which were given to him at the hospital.

Due to his incontinence other prisoners complained about him.

He asked to be moved to another cell and in the last two weeks before his release he was placed in a separate cell with a fellow prisoner.

Again he was not given a bed.

When at Ngwelezane Hospital he was chained to a bed in the intensive care unit.

Balton said: "It was undoubtedly humiliating and degrading to be chained to a hospital bed. While it may have been a security measure, his arrest was unlawful and made without a warrant for his detention.

Sapa