#CagedGirls: Family to sue Ministry of Police
SAHRC has sent family forms.
The mother of the three girls who were locked up in a cage-like room at Roodepoort Police Station said she is unhappy about the way in which a Sunday publication as well as users on social media have portrayed her and the events.
She is grated by the fact that people believe that she had known she was about to be arrested, yet did nothing to make arrangements for her daughters. “We were supposed to return goods to a former landlord who said we did not pay for it. At no stage did he indicate that he was going to have us arrested. That is why we unsuspectingly took our daughters along,” said the angry mother.
“We were arrested on a charge of possession of stolen goods, and not on drug charges as claimed on social media,” she stressed.
She also once again vehemently denied the police’s claims that it is “only a waiting room for friends and family”. “It is part of the cells and we were locked up there with other criminals,” said the mother.
On 31 July Roodepoort Police Station commander, Brigadier Manala, told the Record that the police are taking the allegations “very seriously”. He said a dedicated investigating officer has been tasked with investigating the allegations and that they were busy taking statements from all parties involved. “Should we find that the member in question is guilty, we will definitely take disciplinary action,” said Manala.
Read the initial article here: Little girls kept in ‘cage’ at Roodepoort Police Station
By 26 July The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) supplied the family with the forms needed to lay an official complaint with the Commission. Whether the family has submitted the forms, or whether the Commission has decided on the validity of the complaint, is not known.
Meanwhile, the family’s lawyer, James Human, has indicated that relatives of the three little girls (11-year-old twins and a seven-year-old) will be suing the Ministry of Police over the incident.
During discussions with the family’s legal adviser it has also sadly been established that the younger girl (now aged seven) was raped when she was three.
The case made the news in 2014 when Mathys van Zyl was found guilty of molesting and raping the three-year-old while her twin sisters, seven at the time, witnessed the incident. The whole case revolved around the twins’ testimony and Van Zyl, who was found guilty of raping an 11-year-old prior to the incident, was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment.
According to the Record’s sister publication, the Krugersdorp News, which reported on the case, the molestation happened on more than one occasion and in one incident the girl bled for a week after the assault.
The family’s legal adviser, as well as the mother of the now seven-year-old, said they are back to square one as all three girls are traumatised all over again. One of the first things one of the girls allegedly asked when they realised they were going to be locked up, was, “Are we now going to be with Thys?” (referring to Van Zyl) .
The mother and legal adviser also allege that the detective in question told the hysterical girl in the cage “Hey wena, shut the f**k up and stop p*****g”. His name is known to the Record.
Also Read: #CagedGirls: SAHRC to step in
When the Record approached Provincial spokesperson, Colonel Lungelo Dlamini, he wrote the following in an email: “The newspaper remarks regarding the above article is outrageous and depicts police officers especially at Roodepoort Police Station as violent and cruel. It is believed the journalist who wrote the story, did that without any means of getting factual information either from the station commander or the police spokesperson (this is not true as the Record has telephone records, WhatsApp messages and an email to prove that we requested comment) but resorted to this fictitious quote, ‘Roodepoort Police said they will investigate’. (This statement is also untrue. The spokesperson, Captain Nonhlanhla Khumalo, told the Record she would investigate once she had the parents’ surname and details of the charges they were arrested for. This is an indication of her intent to investigate). Therefore the journalist had a [sic] vague details of the incident and the newspaper continued to publish such information. The true facts are as follows:
The couple were arrested by the Florida detectives while they were with three children. They were taken to Roodepoort Police Station for detention. The children were never kept in a police cell or in a “cage”. Immediately when the the parents and children arrived at the police station, police called the grandmother to come and fetch the children.”
The mother of the three girls countered Dlamini’s “true facts”:
• According to her, she did call her mother from the Florida Police detectives’ offices, but the detective told her he “cannot wait for her mother”. She alleged that once at the Roodepoort Police Station no one called any family again.
• She also claimed that at the Roodepoort Police Station the police officer guarding the “cage” refused to unlock it to let her and her children in, based on the fact that he knew it would be wrong to lock up the children, but the detective had a conversation with him and he did it nonetheless.
• The mother reiterated the fact that there were criminals in the “cage” with her and her children.
Dlamini also failed to explain the photo clearly showing the children in the “cage”.
Later Dlamini did an about-turn though. After the Record had replied to his email, in which he insinuated that the journalist did not get comment from the Roodepoort Police, he replied saying “Your prompt response is appreciated. This matter will now be investigated. Captain Khumalo did not discuss the request with her station commander and the Provincial Office.”
The parents of the girls were arrested on 11 July. The three girls and their mother were locked in the room in question for two hours. According to Human it is alleged that there were seven other suspects locked up with them, one of whom was charged with rape.
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