Zwelidumile Gcam-Gcam v Minister of Police

The plaintiff was arrested on 6 June 2009 on serious criminal charges and remained in custody after bail was refused. He was tried, convicted in November 2012, and sentenced to lengthy imprisonment including life imprisonment. His appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal succeeded on 25 March 2015, resulting in his convictions and sentences being set aside and his release. On 18 May 2015, nearly six years after his arrest and about three months after his release, the plaintiff served a statutory notice in terms of the Institution of Legal Proceedings Against Certain Organs of State Act 40 of 2002. He instituted a civil action for unlawful arrest and detention on 27 February 2018. The defendant raised special pleas of prescription, non-compliance with the statutory notice requirements, and non-joinder. The matter proceeded as a stated case under Rule 33 of the Uniform Rules of Court, limited to determining when prescription began to run and when the debt became due.

The special pleas of prescription and non-compliance with the Institution of Legal Proceedings Against Certain Organs of State Act were upheld. The plaintiff’s claim was dismissed with costs on scale B.

The judgment reinforces Constitutional Court authority that prescription in unlawful arrest and detention claims runs from the date of arrest, not from acquittal or the setting aside of a conviction on appeal. It clarifies that knowledge of wrongfulness is a legal conclusion irrelevant to section 12(3) of the Prescription Act and expressly declines to follow contrary High Court authority, strengthening legal certainty in police liability and prescription jurisprudence.