‘Police attached wires to my penis’
April 15 2013 at 09:44am
By Carolyn Raphaely
By Carolyn Raphaely
Bloemfontein - Four Grootvlei
awaiting-trial prison inmates and two of their co-accused released on bail last
month are suing Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa for damages relating to brutal
apartheid-era interrogation and torture tactics allegedly employed by
Bloemfontein’s Organised Crime Unit (OCU).
Charges include being hung upside down
in broad daylight from a first-floor balcony of the Bloemfontein Tourist Centre
(BTC), electric shock torture, suffocation with pepper-spray filled plastic
bags, head-bashing, assaults and beatings.
The Wits Justice Project (WJP) is in
possession of medical reports documenting injuries caused by torture and other
evidence corroborating William Dube, Lucky Mametsa, Mzwandile Khani, David
Seleke, Davies Musimeke and Sifiso Cele’s allegations. The alleged torture took
place after the men’s arrest on armed robbery and burglary charges in May 2010.
Dube described being cuffed to a chair
in an unmarked suite of the tourism centre offices, wires attached to his
penis, and shocked.
“It was very, very painful. I even wet
myself... They covered my head with a plastic bag, filled it with pepper spray
and sealed it with duct tape.”
Dube said he agreed to a confession
while held by two organised crime unit members by the ankles in broad daylight
over a balcony.
David Seleke
(pictured) says he was tortured at home in front of his neighbours. Photo: Wits
Justice Project
The Star
Khani said he was assaulted and beaten
at his home by OCU members when arrested. Two weeks later he was taken to the
centre for a second round and shocked repeatedly for almost four hours in front
of a woman officer.
“There were nine or 10 policemen
watching, and kicking me. One of them opened my legs and kicked me in my
private parts. I was screaming so loudly, they forced a dirty cloth in my
mouth.”
Khani’s Grootvlei hospital records
confirm “a clot-like substance in the penile shaft as a result of being
assaulted by police officers”.
OCU’s attempts to elicit a confession
from Mametsa allegedly included repeated head-bashing.
After three days in Grootvlei hospital,
he said “I was sneezing blood with green stuff with rotten things in it. Pieces
of bone... were coming out of my nose”.
After being told by Grootvlei’s doctor
there was nothing wrong with him, dentist Dr Tapan Sewbarun diagnosed a broken
zygomatic bone and head fracture. He referred Mametsa to Pelonomi Hospital
where, Mametsa said, a scan and X-ray showed a head fracture. After these
records disappeared, Mametsa was again told there was nothing wrong with him.
Dube, Khani and Mametsa laid charges
against the OCU and Warrant Officer Jan Basson at Bloemspruit Police Station in
May 2010. The case was transferred to Kagisanong but there have been no further
developments.
Seleke said he was shocked with
“something like a cow-prod that the boere use for animals” when arrested at his
house. Though cameras recorded the assaults, he said the monitor and footage
were confiscated by police.
After laying assault charges against
Basson at Park Road Police Station, Seleke lodged a complaint with the
Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD), now Independent Police Investigative
Directorate.
He was told his statement had
disappeared; only an empty police docket remained.
Months later, Seleke was assaulted by
Basson in Grootvlei’s reception area in front of his co-accused and DCS
officials. A probe was done but the outcome is unknown.
Musimeke and Cele said they suffered
similarly at the centre.
Mthethwa’s spokesperson Zweli Mnisi
referred the WJP to Free Sate Provincial Head: Corporate Communication
Brigadier Billy Jones for comment. “We are aware that such allegations are
being investigated by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate. Their
office is the mandated entity that would be in a position to provide you with
comment on their investigations. I cannot comment as the investigations are
independent from the SAPS.
“This office can only confirm that the
mentioned accused who are making these allegations are currently facing serious
charges, namely two of armed robbery and one of burglary at business premises.
The accused were arrested in the act at the business premise where the burglary
took place. The trial involving these accused are (sic) continuing in court on
Monday.”
The crimes are alleged to have taken
place between April and May 2010.
* Carolyn Raphaely is a member of the
Wits Justice Project that investigates miscarriages of justice, located in
Wits’ journalism department. The WJP is in possession of the names of other
members of the Organised Crime Unit implicated in these allegations. - The Star
