‘Police throttled him until
he collapsed’
August 1 2014 at 07:44am
By KUTLWANO OLIFANT
By KUTLWANO OLIFANT
Johannesburg -
A Joburg man who was trying to capture cellphone images of a friend allegedly
being assaulted by the police ended up dead moments later – allegedly at the
hands of officers.
According to
the friend’s daughter, Lumkiswa Mangxama – who witnessed the incident – Richard
Chirwa was choked by a police officer who had arrested him for drinking and
driving.
The friend,
Thulani Ntuli, was travelling with Mangxama and his son Jabulani when they were
stopped by police in Brackenhurst, Ekurhuleni, last Saturday afternoon.
On Thursday,
Mangxama said that police saw two bottles of beer in the car and arrested
Chirwa and her father on the scene.
“They asked us
if we were drunk, but no one responded. I think that got them angry,” said
Mangxama, adding that the police assaulted her father before shoving him into
the back of their van.
The 29-year-old
woman said she and her brother were then asked to join her father in the van.
Chirwa was
driven by a policeman in his car to the Brackenhurst police station.
“When we got to
the police station, my brother and I were taken to different entrances to the
station. We then met my father’s friend (Chirwa) a few minutes later (inside
the police station).
“My dad was lying
on the floor in front of other police officers. He was bleeding on his face and
not moving at the time,” Mangxama said.
She said
Chirwa’s crime was to capture pictures of her father, who was bleeding from
being hit with a firearm.
They asked
Chirwa to stop taking the pictures and they took his cellphone.
Chirwa was then
told by a police officer that they were going to draw his blood to check for
alcohol, but he refused, saying he would only do so if they returned his
cellphone.
“The arresting
officer pepper-sprayed my father’s friend in the face and then throttled him
until he collapsed.
“They tried to
resuscitate him, but he looked like he was already dead,” Mangxama said.
On Thursday
night, Chirwa’s family said they wanted answers and that the officers should be
arrested.
“We are
suspicious because police are telling us a different story from the
eyewitnesses,” said Chirwa’s stepdaughter, Veliswa Mazibuko.
The police
couldn’t say how Chirwa had died, she added.
“The death
certificate states that his cause of death is still being investigated.
However, a police officer from the station told us that the cause was natural
death,” Mazibuko said.
“They told us
my father collapsed when a standby nurse tried to draw his blood. They told us
that he was being arrested for drinking and driving.
“We seriously
don’t know who to trust because the police are lying to us. Everything they say
doesn’t make sense at all,” she said.
Mazibuko
claimed that the nurse failed to answer them when asked why she did not ask her
father about his medical condition. She said Chirwa was diabetic, but the
police said he was suffering from high-blood pressure.
The family had
asked for a meeting with the Brackenhurst police to explain the incident. But
they said they were turned down by the station commander.
“All we wanted
was to meet with the arresting officers to explain, but she refused,” Mazibuko
said.
Police
spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini referred The Star to the
Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid), who were investigating the
matter.
However, Ipid
spokesman Moses Dlamini’s phone went unanswered and he did not respond to SMSes
sent.
kutlwano.olifant@inl.co.za
The Star
