WATCH: ‘White cops tortured me, forced me to have oral sex’

The SA Human Rights Commission and the Independent Police Investigative Department (Ipid) are investigating a case of police kidnapping, sexual abuse, theft and torture.

To protect the identity of the man who has filed a case of kidnapping, sexual abuse, theft and torture by police officers with the SAHRC and Ipid, The Citizen is using the pseudonym Mongezi to tell his story.

On November 10, Mongezi, a subsistence farmer from Snakepark in Soweto, took a walk to meet up with another farmer at the enclosures of a well-known farmer in the area to discuss a livestock purchase.

As he approached, eight white men appeared and showed him a picture of a man called Themba and asked if he knew him. He said he did.

By admitting to knowing Themba it lead to him allegedly being brutally assaulted, forced to have oral sex with one of the men and put in a hole with a dog.

“They threw me into a mine hole with a rope tied around my neck. They then let a police dog on a leash down and it started biting me on my arms, legs and neck,” Mongezi claimed. “Later two of them came down the hole. They assaulted me more, one behind me with a rubber tube which he used to suffocate me as they were kicking and beating me.”

Then he claimed one of the officers forced him to have oral sex with him. “They made me kneel before one of them, and asked me how I feed baby goats when they are still young and their mother refuses to feed them. I told them I use a bottle and dummy to give them milk.

“He said I should demonstrate how I do it. He opened his zip took out his penis and told me to suck it like a goat until he ejaculated in my mouth.”

He alleged in the midst of this he heard people shouting from a distance in Zulu “if you kill him we will report you, we have your number plates and you”.

At that stage they pulled him out of the hole, dragged him into the bakkie and left.

Mongezi was taken to the North West and put in a car with two policemen who drove him to Potchefstroom police station.

“Before taking me to the North West they drove around the township assaulting me and asking me where Themba lived.”

Mongezi’s wife said the men turned her house upside down searching for a gun. The men said they were farmers looking for livestock they had lost.

She reported the matter to officers at Dobsonville police station who questioned the men.

They said they were police officers from Potchefstroom and would drive Mongezi to the local police station, which allegedly never happened.

Their bakkie was full of sheep and goats, which Mongezi claimed they divided among themselves when they got to Potchefstroom.

On November 11, Mongezi was transferred to Ventersdorp police station.

His family said they organised a lawyer to represent him. Initially his bail was R30,000, but the lawyer got it reduced to R5,000.

The lawyer, Edwin Makwati, identified two of the eight men as police officers.

Mongezi will appear in court facing charges of livestock theft in Ventersdorp in January.

– news@citizen.co.za

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