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Brutal Beat
Date: 05 June 2011 07:00
Producer: Nguni Productions
Presenter: Derek Watts
Bongani Bingwa
Show: Carte Blanche
Images of Andries Tatane being beaten [on screen], then shot by police during a protest in Ficksburg recently horrified South Africans.
His death highlighted a pattern of police brutality on the increase countrywide.
And, it seems, victims don't have to be on the front line of a protest to feel the lash.
Derek Watts (Carte Blanche presenter): "Over the past three months a number of Durban motorists claim they have been pulled over by SAPS patrol officers who've then assaulted and intimidated them... and, in some cases, the officers stole or extorted money."
In a 24-hour period in February this year, Abigail, Steve and two young men from Umbilo were allegedly brutalised by police.
Steve: "They actually kicked me in full view of my security guard and pushed me inside the car."
Lawrence: "The one officer put me in a choke-hold and I couldn't breathe... already after being pepper sprayed, and I remember almost passing out."
Abigail: "They slapped me with an open, full hand across my head three times."
Abigail says her ordeal began after an evening out with friends.
On the way home, officers in a SAPS vehicle instructed her to pull over.
She hadn't been drinking, nor had she violated any traffic laws. But she felt nervous.
Abigail: "I wound my window down and said to them: 'Please follow me to a safer area.' I was driving slow[ly] enough so they could hear what I was saying, and I carried on driving."
When she stopped at a red light further down the road, the police pounced. They pulled her out of the vehicle and pinned her against the car - hands behind her back.
Abigail: "And he said to me: 'You are drunk; we are placing you under arrest.'"
She protested her innocence, but was ignored.
It was the start of a two hour attack that left her bruised, bleeding and temporarily blinded by pepper spray.
Abigail: "It was just absolutely horrific; I was so scared."
Last year, 920 complaints about the police were lodged with the Independent Complaints Directorate. These included murder, attempted murder and assault.
This is the highest number of cases reported since the directorate started in 1997 and a 140% increase.
And it's not just a handful of cops. CCTV cameras captured this footage of a group of officers who raided Catz Pyjamas restaurant in Johannesburg and assaulted patrons.
Four officers were suspended.
Abigail says she was also assaulted by a multitude of police officers.
Abigail: "There [was] at least three or four other cars which arrived and between 10 to 15 police officers arrived on the scene."
She says she was physically assaulted by at least four officers while the others watched.
Abigail's lawyer, Jacques Botha, says even officers who don't participate in assaults are as guilty by association.
Derek: "So it's a serious offence, just standing by?"
Jacques Botha (Criminal attorney): "Absolutely! A police officer is under a duty to actually step in and prevent it."
Abigail has identified two of the officers who attacked her and she accuses Constable Rita Klompas of assaulting her with pepper spray.
Derek: "Abigail says she was handcuffed, thrown onto the back of a police van."
Constable Klompas is alleged to have discharged the spray into the van.
Abigail: "And you can't cover your eyes, because your hands are tied behind you back."
On the other side of Durban, two youngsters were getting the same treatment.
The boys had been arrested for drinking and driving - an offence they admit they were guilty of. But, instead of simply being arrested and booked, they say the police got stuck into them.
Like Abigail, Lawrence and Gary were pepper-sprayed and thrown into the back of a van.
Lawrence: "And they drove off. But they sped fast around corners - we got bashed around [in] the back..."
Unable to use her hands to brace herself, Abigail says she was thrown violently from side to side.
Lawrence: "The bruises all on my legs and the sides of my body are all from the rolling around in the van."
And when finally given a breathalyser test - it showed that she hadn't been drinking.
Abigail: "I heard him say to the captain that we have got a problem and that she is way under the limit."
The 'captain' referred to was Captain D Govender, also known as 'Dilly'.
Abigail: "Then he slapped me three times across the head."
Abigail and the boys were eventually taken to Durban Central - separately, but around the same time.
Lawrence's mother Jenny remembers seeing Abigail.
Jenny: "Her eyes were very swollen - she had very red marks on and around her face, but it was the emotional state that she was in that really got to me."
Her son and his friend were also in bad shape.
Jenny: "Both of them had blood all over their T-shirts. Gary had blood pouring out of his ear. Lawrence had three big gashes across his chest."
The boys have only been able to identify one of their three attackers: Police Reservist Warren Spenceley from the Umbilo police station.
We asked him if physical violence was used.
[On phone] Constable Spenceley: "They weren't doing what we told them to do, so I had no choice."
Sergeant Klompas and Captain Govender from Abigail's case declined their right to a reply and referred us to the SAPS communications department.
Derek: "No comment at this stage Captain?"
[On phone] Captain Govender: "No, that you are going to have to take up with my management."
Dr Johann Burger is from the Institute for Security Studies. He is also a former assistant police commissioner.
He says there has been a 360% increase in criminal complaints against police in the last nine years.
Dr Johann Burger (Institute for Security Studies): "Which includes serious crimes such a robbery, aggravated robbery, house robberies... and even a number of ATM attacks."
He believes police brutality and abuse of power are partly as a result of massive recruitment drives that compromise selection and training.
Dr Burger: "In the process people found their way into the police service who should never have been there."
What does the SAPS think? Bongani spoke to communication officer McIntosh Polela.
He admits many recruits should not be wearing uniform - he has a name for them - Tsotsi cops.
McIntosh Polela (SAPS: Spokesperson): "And that is why the rules of employing police officers have changed to try, by all means, to ensure we do not employ crooks and scumbags..."
Bongani Bingwa (Carte Blanche presenter): "What are you doing to root out the 'Tsotsi cops'?"
McIntosh: "We investigate as hard as we can."
Just 24 hours after Abigail was assaulted, Steve says he was also attacked by SAPS officers when he refused to cough up money in exchange for dropping a trumped up drinking and driving charge.
Like Abigail, he was on his way home at the Point when a police car pulled him over.
Steve: "The one policeman climbed in the vehicle with me, in the passenger side, and made me drive."
He was told to drive to his flat.
Derek: "Had Steve's arrest been above board, he should have been taken directly to the Point police station. Instead, the arresting officers brought him home and forced him to drive underground, into the parking basement."
Out of sight, the four police officers demanded R500 each. When he wouldn't pay up, they kicked and beat him to the ground.
They also sprayed tear gas in his face, threw him into the back of their car and choked him.
Steve: "I've got a little boy, who I adore and I thought that, ja, I wouldn't actually see him again."
When he went to press charges at the Point police station, he was told the names of the officers who had arrested him had disappeared off the docket.
All charges against him for drunken driving have since been dropped.
There is a concern that ill-considered statements by police top brass have contributed to a culture of violence.
McIntosh: "The tough talk on crime does not give a license to police to be brutal on innocent members of the community; it talks to criminals."
But who decides who is innocent?
In February this year, Rajesh and Sbu were accused of stealing from the company they worked for.
Called in for so-called 'questioning' at Durban central [police station], they say they were interrogated and beaten.
Sbu: "I was sitting like this... my hands on the floor, and then they said I mustn't sit like that, I must put my hands like this [behind his back]."
They say eight officers participated in the intimidation, but that policeman, Sergeant Vinay Chathoo, was the one who hit them.
Rajesh: "And started pounding me on my ears, like this, face..."
Sbu: "My eardrum is bust; I went to see a doctor and my drum's... I can't hear properly."
Colonel Arumugam Sigamony, from Crime Prevention allegedly verbally abused and threatened them.
Rajesh: "This Sigamony guy, he told me that, if the other officers [wasn't] over here, he would give me one hit and I would fly through the window."
Rajesh and Sbu were never charged, but they have opened a case of assault against Chathoo.
Col Sigamony and Chatoo declined to speak to us.
According to ICD statistics, 1092 people died as a result of police action between 2008 and 2010. And it's continuing.
Bongani: "But things go wrong at the charge office, with senior detectives involved or at least looking on. How do you explain that?"
McIntosh: "I am disgusted by that. But senior police officers are supposed to be there to guide members and to lead by example. Members of the public should not be afraid."
But they are.
Jenny: "We're supposed to be teaching our children that, if you're stuck, go to a policeman and a policeman will help you, but I don't want to do that!"
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