Daveyton police station cells 'hell': resident
Sapa | 14
March, 2013 12:05
"If
you have never been inside those (Daveyton) police station cells, you haven't
seen anything," resident Martin Mokoena told him during a visit to the
area.
Image by: SIMPHIWE NKWALI
Image by: SIMPHIWE NKWALI
The Daveyton police station cells are hell, a local
resident told Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa on Thursday.
"If
you have never been inside those (Daveyton) police station cells, you haven't
seen anything," resident Martin Mokoena told him during a visit to the
area.
Mthethwa
and Gauteng police commissioner Mzwandile Petros were meeting with Daveyton
residents following the death of taxi driver Mido Macia in police custody on
February 26. Earlier that day he was dragged behind a police van.
Mthethwa
listened and noted residents' complaints regarding the conduct of police in the
area.
Mokoena,
50, said police "brutally" assaulted him in 2011 when he went to
report his son, who broke his house's windows and doors. The son got angry
after he reprimanded him for arriving home late one night.
"Instead
they told me to go back. When I refused, they assaulted me and threw me into a
cell."
Mokoena
said he could not see properly and had difficulty hearing as a result of the
assault. He went to see a doctor, and later went to open a case against the
police.
"They
told me I have to speak to the station commissioner if I have a complaint
against the police, but an officer opened a docket and registered the
complaint."
Mokoena
said he had been following up on progress with the case, but nothing had been
happening.
The nine
policemen accused of killing Macia were denied bail by the Benoni Magistrate's
Court on Tuesday.
Magistrate
Sam Makamu said he felt it was not in the interests of justice to grant them
bail. The matter would resume on April 12.
In
delivering his ruling, Makamu said Daveyton residents could try to seek revenge
on the accused. He expressed concern at the prospect of sending the men back to
their homes in such an "unfavourable" climate.
