TRC Final Report

Volume 3

Chapter 5

Subsection 31

Torture in rural areas

206 Assault and torture of detainees appears to have been very widespread in rural towns. With the smaller pool of police personnel, the same names recur repeatedly in statements alleging torture in rural town police stations.

207 In the northern Karoo town of Noupoort, at least two youths were reported to be mentally disturbed after undergoing torture. Yibanathi Mjada [CT00389], aged fourteen, was tortured by having his penis slammed in a drawer. He was later charged with offences and became mentally disturbed. Ms Gladys Ntsizakalo described what happened to her son Siphiwo Ntsizakalo [CT01504]

He was fifteen years old. The police were always looking for him. They knocked, kicking the doors down. They used tear gas. They took my son with. He was detained for two days. On the third day the police came to tell me at home that my son is ill. He is mentally disturbed – totally confused.

I asked if I could see my son as he is not well. They refused yet again. The police had no respect – even though I was a parent. They just took my child to Queenstown [to a mental asylum]. When he came back after two months he stayed in detention (for another month). I went to the police station and requested – may I see my son. He was alone in the cell. Both his hands and his legs were tied. When I looked at him as a parent, I realised that he was mentally disturbed. When he saw me – he just cried. I could see that my son had changed. When I asked he said they kept on beating him up – they beat him up – that is why he was deranged. They would take a sack – a wet sack – and then they would cover him with that sack. They would put him in the boot – drive him to a place that he did not know and then when they reached their destination, they would beat him up. After that they would take him back to the cell. Now he cannot do anything for himself. He cannot be independent, because he is mentally deranged.

208 Mr Andile ‘Ace’ Kobe [CT06803] was arrested and subsequently beaten unconscious inside the George police station. The police took the unconscious Kobe to the beach in their van and left him there for the night. Kobe was found the following morning and underwent emergency brain surgery for a subdural haematoma. He died shortly afterwards, and his funeral was restricted.

209 Three Riot Unit members were charged with his murder. Mr Andre Schutte (19) was sentenced to twelve years’ imprisonment for bludgeoning Kobe to death. His two former colleagues, Mr Pieter Koen (21) and Mr Cornis Serfontein (22), were each sentenced to seven years’ jail for attempted murder. The sentencing of the police was widely criticised for its comparative leniency.

210 Statements taken from the Mossel Bay area reflect brutal torture of a range of young teenagers arrested and tortured by the same group of people during 1985 and 1986. Almost all then spent three to five months in state of emergency detention in George prison. Some were subsequently charged with public violence. The Mossel Bay stories of torture show a number of unusual similarities, including a particularly aggressive form of sexual abuse of both males and females. Several males had their genitals slammed in the drawer of a desk.

211 Mr Patrick Mzathi [CT06108] was detained in 1986 at the age of fourteen by police in Mossel Bay. He was beaten with a handgun, ‘klapped’ and kicked. Policemen including Sergeant Maritz slammed his penis and testicles in a drawer, which rendered him unconscious. He was kept naked in a cell and was released after nearly three months. A Captain Calitz was among those named for similar torture of other victims.

212 Ms Zanele Zingxondo [CT00860] describes the sexual torture and electric shocks applied to her in Mossel Bay in order to get her to implicate herself in the killing of Development Board employee Mr Afrika Nqumse [CT00559], who had been necklaced in March 1986 in George during ongoing conflicts around forced removals.

One of them pushed me on the chair and they took my arms at the back of the chair and they handcuffed me, my one leg was handcuffed to the one leg of the chair. One of these detectives took a piece of cloth and put it over my head. They stuffed some papers and a piece of cloth in my mouth, and my eyes were also closed …

They clipped pegs on my ears, both my ears and they switched this object on. I realised only then that it was some kind of an electric shock. They did this several times, up until my bladder couldn’t take it. They stopped and asked if I was still denying that I was also there, when Africa was murdered. I couldn’t speak because my tongue was hurt and I was crying.

They started smacking me, pushing me around also. Captain van der Merwe pulled me up to other side of his desk. They unbuttoned my shirt, and pulled my breast out of my bra, they emptied one drawer and my breast was squeezed in the drawer. They did this several times on each of the breasts up until the white sticky stuff burst out of the nipples of my breast. I cried, but it was of no use, because no-one could hear me.