Damages for injuries arising from unlawful shooting by police and other security agents: South Africa, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia and Swaziland/Eswatini (2)

Author: Chuks Okpaluba

ISSN: 1996-2118
Affiliations: LLB, LLM (London), PhD (West Indies), Research Fellow, Centre for Human Rights, University of the Free State
Source: South African Journal of Criminal Justice, Volume 35 Issue 2, p. 175 – 197
https://doi.org/10.47348/SACJ/v35/i2a3

Abstract

The discussion of the South African cases involving wrongful police shootings and the damages awarded in that regard formed the subject of the discussion in the first part of this series. That discussion continues in the current part two which winds up with the analysis of the cases from Lesotho and Malawi involving injuries caused by the use of firearms by police officers and other security agents. The deprivation of personal liberties and physical and other injuries caused by police shootings may appear similar to the heads of damages recoverable in these jurisdictions such that guiding principles are uniformly applied. At the end of the day, the amounts finally awarded differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction as the courts in the smaller jurisdictions of Southern Africa often emphasise the disparities between their economies and the more developed South African economy such that the amounts finally awarded reflect such socio-economic disparities.