On 16 November 1860, in the Upper Umkomanzi District, about twenty-four miles south of Pietermaritzburg, the colonial police attempted to arrest a white settler for the illegal sale of gunpowder and firearms. The following month, the government brought the accused gunrunner’s case before the resident magistrate’s office in Pietermaritzburg and charged the defendant with contravening Law No. 9 of 1857 regarding the sale of firearms. Such cases involving the illegal sale of guns were typical in Natal throughout the nineteenth century. In this incident, however, the defendant’s conviction rested on the testimony of an African constable named Budaza, alias ‘Witboy.’ The full details of this case are examined below, but perhaps the most striking component of this testimony was how Budaza asserted his authority over a white man during his arrest. Though Budaza only appears briefly in the colonial records, his ostensibly brash statements of authority, including a threat to stab or beat the subject with his ‘sticks’ during the attempted arrest, were a testament to Budaza’s confidence in his established position within the colonial state.