‘Why would they be so cruel?’: Disabled man says cops beat him, smashed his prosthetic leg

The Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) is investigating an incident in which a disabled father was viciously beaten and his prosthetic limb smashed to pieces, allegedly by six police officers at the Piet Retief police station in Mpumalanga.

According to the complainant, Skhumbuzo Ndlangamandla, it all started when he found the mother of his six-month-old child drunk and loitering the town’s streets with the child on her back.

He asked her to give him the child but she would have none of it, so he decided to go to the nearest police station for assistance.

Ndlangamandla, 28, said he asked his ward committee member to accompany him to the police station to ask for help for the sake of the wellbeing of the child.

He found six police officers at the station and explained his situation. However, one of them became aggressive and asked what he expected them to do, according to Ndlangamandla.

“Before I could say anything, I was pepper-sprayed and then punches rained on my face as the others joined in on the attack and before I knew [it], I was on the ground. By the time they finished with me, I was in pain all over my body and my artificial limb smashed,” said Ndlangamandla.

He said the ward committee member tried to intervene but was also attacked and dragged into the police station where the beatings continued.

Ndlangamandla, who lives on a farm in Mahamba, about 25km outside Piet Retief, said the incident happened last Wednesday when was in town to meet the mother of his son so he could buy him new clothes.

“When I met her, she was drunk and acting dangerously in the busy town. I feared for the safety of my boy and was hoping for police to intervene but instead I was viciously attacked. Now my whole body is sore and I am back on crutches,” he said.

A former farmworker, Ndlangamandla lost his left foot in a freak woodchipper accident in March 2013 and is now surviving on his disability grant.

“How am I going to afford another limb? The one they broke was bought by my previous employer. What makes it even more painful is that my attackers broke the limb deliberately. Why would they be so cruel?” he asked.

Mpumalanga police spokesperson Colonel Donald Mdhluli referred questions on the matter to the Ipid.

The police watchdog’s national spokesperson Grace Langa said the case was reported to them on Christmas day.

She said their Mpumalanga head of department had tasked an investigator for that area to go to Piet Retief this week to attend to preliminary investigations around the allegations.

siphom@citizen.co.za