TRC Final Report

Volume 3

Chapter 5

Part Appendix

Subsection 1

APPENDIX

Statistics on Violations in the Western Cape

■ NATURE OF THE VIOLATIONS

1 Violations in the areas covered by the Cape Town office differed from those of the other offices in terms of quantity (there were far fewer violations), but the pattern of the violations is similar. The types of violations reported were as follows, starting with killings:

2 Most people died as a result of being shot, followed by burnings. Stabbing is the second most common cause of death nationally, but was far less common in the Cape Town region.

3 Beatings and incarceration were the most common reported forms of severe ill treatment, followed by shootings. Arson was the fourth most common violation although, nationally, arson is the most common category of severe ill treatment, because of the huge number of arson cases in the area covered by the Durban office.

4 In keeping with the national trend, the most common form of torture was by beating, but mental torture and torture by suffocation were far more common in the area covered by the Cape Town office than in other regions, where torture by electric shock and by forced postures were more common.