South African police
accused of routinely torturing crime suspects
Arrested
men say how they experienced police brutality from beatings to suffocation used
to extract confessions
theguardian.com, Sunday 14 April 2013 15.38 BST
The
killing of striking miners at Marikana, South Africa, in 2012 is among
incidents that have led to accusations of police brutality. Photograph:
AFP/Getty Images
The
Bloemfontein tourist centre is a neat, red building overlooking the bus
terminal and the football stadium. For visitors to the city it's a fountain of
information and advice, but taxi driver William Dube says that for him the
innocuous-looking building will always be associated with his torture at the hands of the police.
Dube, a
33-year-old from Pretoria, is awaiting trial in Bloemfontein's Grootvlei prison
after being arrested in 2010 on armed robbery charges, by officers of South Africa's organised crime unit. Two weeks later, he says
he was taken to an unmarked suite of offices in the tourist centre, where the
officers cuffed him to a chair.
"They
attached wires to my penis and back from something that looked like an old
phone," he said. "Then they wound it up to get power to shock me. It
was very, very painful. I even wet myself."
Dube said
the officers covered his head with a plastic bag and sealed it with duct tape.
"They only remove the plastic when you collapse, then they take it off.
While they were suffocating me, they put pepper spray inside the plastic bag
and sealed it. They kicked and punched me in the eye and ear. I still can't
hear properly."
He says
he was taken to the balcony and hung upside down over the edge, an officer
holding each leg. That is when he agreed to co-operate with the investigation.
"I
was terrified they'd drop me," Dube said. "They told me places to
point out, how to make a confession and what to say. I did the pointing out the
next day."
Under
apartheid, the South African police were notorious for torturing and abusing
political detainees, with many unexplained deaths in police cells. But similar
brutality in the "new" South African police service has come to the
forefront recently, after the massacre of striking mine workers at Marikana and
the death in the township of Daveyton of Mido Macia, a Mozambican who was tied
to the back of a police van and dragged along the road.
The
Independent Complaints Directorate's 2011-12 report records 4,923 complaints
received against the police and 720 deaths in police custody or as a result of
police action.
"Torture
hasn't suddenly reared its ugly head," said Professor Peter Jordi of the
Wits Law Clinic at the University of Witwatersrand, who specialises in the
subject of torture. "It's never stopped … It was carried out at police
stations before and continues today. Previously, it was believed that mostly
political detainees were tortured. If you're a criminal arrested for armed
robbery today, you face exactly the same fate."
Most
incidents of assault and torture are not reported. And if they are, they are
unlikely to come to court. Take the allegations made by Dube's co-accused,
Mzwandile Khani Khani. Arrested at the same time as Dube, Khani alleges he was
brutally assaulted at his home. Two weeks later, he says he was booked out of
Grootvlei hospital by organised crime unit members and taken to the tourist
centre for a second round of beatings, assault and torture. Like Dube, he says
he was cuffed to a chair, had a plastic bag placed over his head and wires
attached to his back and penis.
"I
was 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 collapsed and fainted. They waited for me
to regain consciousness and laughed at me. I heard them say 'hierdie kaffir
is baie sterk' [this kaffir is very strong]." Nearly two years later,
Khani's hospital records confirm that he still bears injuries.
Khani was
one of those to report the matter to Groootvlei prison authorities and to lay
charges of assault with intention to do grievous bodily harm against the
officers he claims are responsible. He has heard nothing since.
Another
co-accused, Lucky Mametsa, said he was also taken to the tourist centre, where
his head was repeatedly bashed against a wall to elicit a confession. When he
eventually received medical care, he was diagnosed with a broken cheekbone and
skull fracture and sent to hospital.
As
Mametsa tells it, a scan and x-ray showed the fracture. "The doctor wrote
a full-page script but I never received any medicine till today." On his
second visit to hospital, Mametsa said he was told he needed an operation, but
when he returned for his third appointment his medical records had disappeared.
Again he says he was told there was nothing wrong with him.
It is
often difficult to corroborate torture allegations because there is no
evidence, but when former boxer David Seleke was assaulted outside his home by
police the incident was recorded on camera.
Seleke
said he was attacked, pepper-sprayed, kicked, beaten and shocked with
"something like a cow-prod that the boere [farmers] use for
animals" in front of his neighbours. Surveillance cameras that he had
installed in his home for his money-lending business recorded the assaults.
Unfortunately, the monitor and footage were confiscated by the police.
"Straight
after my arrest, I laid charges of assault," he said. "I also
complained to the Independent Complaints Directorate. They confirmed the case
but said my statement had disappeared. Only a blank docket remained."
Dube,
Khani, Mametsa and Seleke are awaiting trial in Grootvlei Prison. Their
co-accused, who also say they were mistreated by police, were released on bail
last month. To date, all attempts by the men to seek redress have fallen on
deaf ears, so they are suing the minister of police, Nathi Mthethwa, for
damages.
In
addition to laying charges, reporting the matter to the Judicial Inspectorate
of Correctional Services and the head of Grootvlei, they have written to the
Human Rights Commission, the Independent Complaints Directorate, and Ace
Magashula, premier of Free State province.
Police
spokesman Brigadier Billy Jones said he was aware of the allegations, which
were being investigated. "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," he said.
The right
to be free from torture is enshrined in South Africa's constitution, yet observers
say torture is used is part and parcel of criminal investigations.
"Police
torture is a daily occurrence in Gauteng where I practise," said Jordi.
"I probably handled more than 20 torture cases against the police in
Gauteng alone last year."
Jordi
believes judges and magistrates are equally to blame. "They deal with
individual cases where torture is alleged and ignore the evidence staring them
in the face."
