Asylum seeker victimised by Benoni SAPS

According to Ali, the incident took place after a client returned because he wanted a refund for a broken LCD screen.

Ali took two videos (the City Times has watched them) of the incident using his cellphone.

He said he repaired the customer’s phone in front of him, let him agree before he attached the screen with glue and let him verify that it was in a working condition.

The unnamed man agreed and left, but returned later that day with a cracked screen insisting on a refund.

Ali told the client that he cannot be held responsible for the broken screen as he left their shop after agreeing that the screen was fixed.

The customer then returned with two officers, believed to be a captain and colonel.

The officers told Ali to give the man his money back, but he explained that he can’t give him the money as he spent it on the part for the screen he had fixed originally.

According to Ali, the officers then grabbed him at his belt, twisted his arm, took R550 from his pocket and gave it to the customer.

In the first video, when Ali asked them why they took his money, one officer shouted: “It is not your money, it is his money.”

In the same video, one of the officers instructs Ali to switch off his phone’s recording device.

“They had no right to do so,” said Shaikh, explaining that her husband was well within his rights to record videos in the shop.

The officer can also be seen behind the shop’s counter.

Shaikh said when her husband tried to phone her during the confrontation the same police officer accused Ali of “threatening him with a phone”.

The video shows the officer wanting to see Ali’s phone.

Ali then got in touch with his wife who went to the shop with her aunt shortly after.

After the incident, the officers proceeded to arrest Ali on the charge of being an illegal immigrant.

Ali is a legitimate asylum seeker, originally from Pakistan.

Ali said the officers refused him to fetch his immigration documents from his car.

His wife then fetched the document and presented it to the officers.

“They told me the papers are fake and they are going to verify it on the next Monday,” she explained.

She said she believes “they knew he was going to spend the weekend in jail and they had no other grounds for his arrest”.

“They asked us for a second-hand goods certificate and we told them we don’t even sell second-hand goods,” said Shaikh.

In the second video, one officer is heard saying “they come to South Africa and they marry for convenience”.

“That is discrimination and xenophobic,” said Shaikh.

Shaikh said they are considering legal steps against the station.

Benoni SAPS spokesperson Const Zama Madonda confirmed that Ali was arrested on October 13 on suspicion of being an illegal immigrant.

He was not formally charged.

She said the Department of Home Affairs verified Ali’s documents the following Monday (October 16) and he was released shortly after.

Capt Nomsa Sekele, also a spokesperson, said the station also received a letter from Shaikh and said an internal investigation is being conducted.

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