Daveyton cell commander Warrant Officer Mphumzi Ngamlana testified that the nine Daveyton policemen now on trial for Macia’s murder had carried Macia into the police station because he was unable to walk on his own.
Macia was not wearing any trousers or shoes, and was only clad in his underpants, T-shirt and socks.
He was crying and complaining that the police had taken his driver’s license, but the police said he’d blocked traffic.
One of the policemen also picked up a plastic chair and wanted to hit Macia with it, but Ngamlana took the chair away from him and reprimanded him.
He saw the policemen pushing Macia roughly to sit on a bench and he could hear the sound of him being hit with an open hand.
Macia was complaining about his head that was hurt and Ngamlana could see he was bleeding from the head.
The policemen told Ngamlana they had not taken Macia for medical treatment.
They said there was a fight at the scene, they were being hit with bricks and that’s where the suspect got the injury.
At that stage, Macia was still able to talk and gave his name to Ngamlana.
According to Ngamlana, his relief commander had phoned for an ambulance, but it did not arrive until hours later.
He carried on with his duties while Macia remained locked in a holding cell, only later seeing that Macia was lying on the floor next to the bench in the cell.
He was still breathing at that stage.
He did not try to help Macia because he felt there was nothing he could do, but repeatedly asked his colleague if he had phoned the paramedics.
When the paramedics arrived at about 9pm that night, they declared that Macia had died.
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