Does anyone care about deaths in SA police custody?
September 13th, 2011
During apartheid, every one of the 74 deaths in SA police custody up to 1994 was widely condemned in screaming headlines and frantic international protest campaigns. Under the ANC regime, deaths in custody soared to 695 in 2006 and reached 860 deaths in 2010. Only the annual Amnesty International summaries have some paragraphs tucked away mentioning this horrific fact. No screaming headlines, no frantic international protest actions. Why did world opinion come to such a screeching halt once the ANC came to power?
Burglary suspect, 21, was hunted downand collared in his squatter-shack by the black community: KwaThema police claimed he then committed suicide overnight
also:
• deaths in police-detention jumped from 695 in 2006 — to 860 in 2010 under ANC regime and
• Amnesty International raises alert about high number of deaths in SA police detention and
• 74 people died in SAP detention during entire period of apartheid up to 1994
8 September 2011 source: journalist Mpho Morereane – Although an inquest still has to be conducted to establish the exact facts, the SA police force have already announced that an unnamed 21-year-old man ‘hung himself’ in the KwaThema Police Station holding cells on the morning of Sept 8 2011. Journalist Mpho Morereane quoted the police as saying:
“He apparently tied a blanket around the bars of the window in the cell and hung himself. The police found his body at around 8am, when he was about to be taken for profiling. How he climbed and reached the bars still puzzles the police. The deceased was arrested on last Thursday for house break-in and theft. He apparently stole a DVD player, blankets, potable radio and a duvet from a shack at Extension Three, KwaThema. The community, which is tired of burglaries in the area, hunted him down at Barcelona section, still in possession of the stolen items.
˜This happened in a blink of an eye
Sergeant Andries Tshabalala, KwaThema police spokesman, told Morereane that ‘they were shocked by the incident because police regularly checked the detainees. This happened in a blink of an eye. However, we would like to send our condolences to the family of the deceased. People in custody must know that they are not guilty until proven guilty by the courts,” says Sgt Tshabalala.
He adds that an inquest docket has been opened.
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