The emotions of fellow residents in Jellicoe Street ran high as a Nigerian citizen has died after allegedly being assaulted by police members in eMalahleni.
On October 7 chaos broke out in the Central Business District (CBD) after allegations were made that the Nigerian man was assaulted and suffocated by police members.
It came to light that he was arrested on Friday, October 2 on an alleged drug charge.
The victim appeared in Witbank Magistrate’s Court and was released on bail on Monday, October 5.
He returned to his home and told his roommates that he was assaulted by the police.
On the scene, numerous people pleaded to the police as for when this brutality will stop.
“This is not the first time we lost a life under the hands of our authority. They had a CBD bust in 2019 where they arrested my sister that walked the streets and assaulted her to the stage where she almost died,” a hysterical bystander on scene told WITBANK NEWS.
Another girl that knows the Nigerian as ‘Aloka’ told the media that he was very sick after he came back from the cells and looked very weak.
“I knew something was not right as he did not even have the energy to climb out of his bed. He said to me that he feels very sick the night before he passed away.”
While gathering information on the scene the names of two groups of policemen allegedly named the ‘eight boys’ were thrown around time and again as the witnesses talked about the ‘prince’ group and another group called ‘mashudu’s’.
It is believed that these groups assault the people living in this area.
“I know what I do is wrong in their eyes, but what gives them the right to come and hurt us for the way we choose of living,” a prostitute added.
The neighbour next to the residents where the incident occurred told WITBANK NEWS that, “the most alarming part is that if the police said they did not cause his death, why did they come and take my CCTV cameras with the footage?”
Witbank Police gave over the case to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) to investigate this matter.
“We are currently investigating this case but the Directorate is still waiting for post mortem to proceed with the investigation,” spokesperson from IPID, Ms Ndileka Cola concluded.
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Nigerian citizen dies in Jellicoe Street – police brutality insinuated
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