MARITE – A 41 year-old man from Marite was tortured by police while members of the community watched from a distance on Saturday.
According to Mr Dennis
Mathabela, the police knocked at his house in the early hours of the morning,
demanding that he must open his door.
“When they knocked, I didn’t respond at
first because I wanted to be sure that they were really police, and then they
broke my back door, but they couldn’t get to my room that is when they broke the
other door from the garage to gain access to the room that I was sleeping in.”
he said.
Mathebela said that after they managed to get into the house they
demanded that he must give them the weapon he was carrying in his car.
“They
demanded that I give them the guns which they said they saw me putting in my car
and when I told them I do not have them, one of the officers started to beat me
up and tried to suffocate me with my blankets while others turned the room
upside down claiming to search for the gun” explained Mathabela.
He further
said after searching the house and not finding anything, they started torturing
him.
“They put a plastic around my face with pepper in it making sure that it
goes straight to my eyes, and I kept on telling them that I don’t have a gun in
the house but they started to kick me on my stomach. My words were not enough
for them, because one of them used a knife to cut the flesh on my fingers while
the other one pushed me to the ground and stepped on my neck” he said.
He
said the torture lasted for two hours while other officers were standing outside
making sure that no one enters the house to rescue Him. After they realised that
there was no gun in the house and he was too weak to stand or talk they took to
him Calcutta police station.
“When we got to the police station they refused
to take me in, instead they brought me back to my house. I asked them to give me
a warrant of search before they leave but they refused and left” he said
Mathebala’s Doctor confirmed to Mpumalanga News that his ribs are
broken and his eyes will need to be treated because of the chilies.
One of
the neighbours who was watching the horrible scene and wanted to remain
anonymous said that when he saw the police van coming he went to investigate
what was happening but he was instructed to go back to his house and he refused.
He added that early this year they broke in to one of Mathebela’s friends house
Vusi Sibiya and beat up the young man demanding that he must give them the guns
that Mathabela gave him to hide for him.
“One of the officers told me to go
back to the house but I refused because I was in my yard and then I heard loud
screams. I managed to see all the horrible things they were doing to him through
the window but there was nothing I could do because even other members of the
community were watching from a distance and it was a terrible thing to watch”
said the neighbour.
The neighbour and other members of the community can
confirm that the torture lasted for two hours while Mathabela was screaming
helplessly in his house.
The police said they cannot comment on the matter
until Mathabela presses charges against the officers, while the communication
officer at Calcutta police station Luiternent Makhubela said that police are not
allowed to beat anyone even if the suspect is guilty and torture is banned in
the country.
