Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/torture/SouthAfrica.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in South Africa. Some of these links may lead to websites
that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false. No
attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of Torture by Authorities are of
particular interest to you. You might
be interested in exploring the moral justification for inflicting pain or
inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment in order to obtain critical
information that may save countless lives, or to elicit a confession for a
criminal act, or to punish someone to teach him a lesson outside of the courtroom. Perhaps your paper might focus on some of
the methods of torture, like fear, extreme temperatures, starvation, thirst,
sleep deprivation, suffocation, or immersion in freezing water. On the other hand, you might choose to
write about the people acting in an official capacity who perpetrate such
cruelty. There is a lot to the subject
of Torture by Authorities. Scan other
countries as well as this one. Draw
comparisons between activity in adjacent countries and/or regions. Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: South Africa U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor,
30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/south-africa/
[accessed 8 August
2021] TORTURE AND OTHER CRUEL,
INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT Although the
constitution and law prohibit such practices, there were reports of police
use of torture and physical abuse during house searches, arrests,
interrogations, and detentions, some of which resulted in death. Impunity was a
significant problem in the security forces. The factors contributing to
widespread police brutality were a lack of accountability and training. PRISON AND DETENTION
CENTER CONDITIONS Prison conditions were
harsh due to overcrowding, poor sanitation, inadequate medical care, disease
(particularly tuberculosis), inmate-on-inmate rape, and physical abuse,
including torture. Media and NGOs
continued to report instances in which prisoners were seriously abused.
According to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate Report
2019/2020, deaths in police custody (237 cases) increased by 11 percent from
2018/2019. There were 120 reported inmate rapes by police officers, 216
reports of torture, and reports of assault. ARREST PROCEDURES
AND TREATMENT OF DETAINEES The law requires a
review in cases of pretrial detention of more than two years’ duration. The
pretrial detention frequently exceeded the maximum sentence for the alleged
crime. Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/south-africa/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 18 May
2020] F3. IS THERE
PROTECTION FROM THE ILLEGITIMATE USE OF PHYSICAL FORCE AND FREEDOM FROM WAR
AND INSURGENCIES? According to a
Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services (JICS) 2017–18 annual report,
the most recent report available as of this writing, there is severe overcrowding
in some prisons—in part due to delays in holding trials. During this period,
82 unnatural deaths were reported in prisons, and there were 988 complaints
of assault by prison officials on inmates. Despite
constitutional prohibitions, police torture and excessive force during
arrest, interrogation, and detention are commonly reported. The Independent
Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) legally required to
investigate allegations of police offenses or misconduct. In its
annual report for the 2018–19 fiscal year, the IPID reported 607 deaths
either in police custody or as a result of police action, 124 rapes by police
officers, 270 incidents of torture, and 3,835 assaults. Overall, there was a
3 percent increase in total reported incidents over the previous fiscal year. S Africa court
issues orders to end police abuse during lockdown Mia Swart,
Aljazeera, 17 May 2020 www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/05/africa-court-issues-orders-police-abuse-lockdown-200516105512595.html [accessed 19 May
2020] Human rights groups
and experts have welcomed a series of orders issued by a South African court
that compel authorities to prevent police and army brutality during the
enforcement of a lockdown meant to curb the spread of coronavirus. In her affidavit, his
partner Nomsa Montsha
claimed that the security forces poured beer on Khosa
after dragging him outside, slammed him against a
cement wall and hit him with the butt of a machinegun. Afterwards, Khosa began vomiting, was unable to walk and lost
consciousness. He was declared dead a few hours later. Montsha
and Khosa's brother-in-law said they were also
assaulted. South African
police torture Nigerian to death P.M. News, 19
January 2019 www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2019/01/19/south-african-police-torture-nigerian-to-death/ [accessed 8 May
2019] The President of
the Nigerian Union in South Africa, Mr Adetola Olubajo, told the News
Agency of Nigeria on the telephone from Pretoria, South Africa, on Saturday
that eye witnesses reported that Nwokeocha was
allegedly tortured and beaten to death in his house. Olubajo said that two
witnesses, Nonso, a Nigerian and Palesa, a South African, were arrested by the same police
officers that allegedly killed Nwokeocha. “The witnesses, however, appeared in court
on Jan. 17, but while the South African, Palesa was
granted bail, Nonso, who is a Nigerian
was denied bail. “Autopsy has been
done by one Dr Humphris
and no sign of any substance was found in the deceased stomach. “But there are bruises on his face, blood
in his mouth and two bruises on his chest; a sign of lack of oxygen,” the
President said. Eight Gauteng cops
arrested for torture, brutal murder of Nigerian man IOL News, ANA
reporter, Cape Town, 5 October 2018 [accessed 6 October
2018] Eight police
officers were arrested on Friday in connection with the October 2017 torture
and murder of a Nigerian national in Vanderbijlpark,
Gauteng, South Africa's police watchdog said. In a statement, the
Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid)
said the six male and two female officers are accused of interrogating and
suffocating 25-year-old Olamilekan Badmus last year. A post-mortem, conducted
by two pathologists, confirmed Badmus had been
tortured, the statement said. Three policemen
arrested on torture‚ murder claims Jeff Wicks, SowetanLIVE, 14 August 2018 [accessed 15 August
2018] Three KwaZulu-Natal
police officers have been accused of the torture and murder of a 47-year-old
man‚ who had been detained for questioning. Independent Police
Investigative Directorate (Ipid) spokesman Moses Dlamini said that detectives from the Muden
police station‚ as well as operatives from the Greytown
Crime Intelligence Unit had detained three men on August 2 for interrogation
relating to a murder case. “The three suspects
were detained‚ tortured and assaulted inside Muden
SAPS cells until one of the suspects succumbed to his injuries and died. Then
the police orchestrated a plan to dispose of the deceased’s body‚ dumping it
in nearby bushes‚” he said. Media Idolizes Winnie
Mandela, Hides Murder and Torture of Kids Alex Newman, New
American, 4 April 2018 [accessed 15 Apr
2018] Especially horrific
was Richardson's description of the 1989 torture and murder he perpetrated
against 14-year-old Stompie Sepei
(shown). The young boy was an anti-government activist associated with Winnie
and the communist-controlled African National Congress, at least until he
came under suspicion of being a “spy” for police. Then, according to
testimony by Richardson and others, Winnie ordered that he be abducted,
brutally beaten, tortured, and eventually, executed like livestock. “I slaughtered him like a goat,” testified
Richardson, who was also the “coach” of Winnie's “soccer team.” According to
Richardson, described as one of Winnie's “closest confidantes,” Winnie
personally participated in the barbaric torture of the young boy, which
involved beatings, whippings, and other horrors. She reportedly sang joyfully
as the boy writhed in horrifying pain. The actual killing, performed by
slitting the boy's throat with pruning shears, took place in Noordgesig in Soweto, near a railway and Winnie's home. R816k for police
torture victim Zelda Venter,
Pretoria News Weekend, 16 May 2015 www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/r816k-for-police-torture-victim-1.1859428 [accessed 19 May
2015] Members of the SAPS
arrived on the scene and Peters was placed in a police vehicle. They drove
him around for hours, interrogating him about the man he had given a lift to. The more Peters
said he knew nothing about the man, the more he was assaulted. A Sergeant Naving Singh, according to evidence led in court,
assaulted Peters in full view of the public. He also pointed a firearm at
Peters’ private parts and Peters said he feared he would die. The more he cried the
more he was told to “stop crying like a bitch”. He was taken to a
remote railway line in Silverton, where a plastic bag was pulled over his
head. He was suffocated,
kicked and punched. His jaw was broken
and when he was eventually taken to the police station, his parents had to
beg the police to take him to a doctor. He only received pain medication and
had to spend two nights in a police cell with a broken jaw. When he was
eventually taken to court, the prosecutor refused to prosecute him due to a
lack of evidence. His parents
immediately took him to hospital, where he underwent an operation to his jaw.
A plate and screws had to be inserted. Mom wins damages
after cop torture Zelda Venter,
Pretoria News, 16 April 2015 www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/mom-wins-damages-after-cop-torture-1.1845917 [accessed 13 August
14, 2015] Dudu Sylvia
Mhlanga, 44, suffered at the hands of the police as they wanted to extract
information from her regarding residents who were apparently involved in
arson. Two female officers
threatened she would never see her children again if she did not speak, she
said. Her hands and feet were
cuffed and she was taken to a room where “a big man in a yellow overall was
sitting”. “He had a bag over
his head and only his nose and mouth were visible. He said the room was a
peace room and would end up a dirty room if I did not do as he said. “He wanted me to
implicate people in arson. When I refused, he placed a heavy bullet proof
jacket over my body. He tied my hands at the waist. It was so tight I
struggled to breathe and my ribs pained. A plastic bag was pulled over my
face, suffocating me…” Mhlanga said she
bit the bag open to breathe. Police then threw fluid into her mouth, which
she suspected was acid, as it burnt her. She urinated at this stage and
signed the affidavit. Human
Rights Watch World Report 2015 - Events of 2014 Human Rights Watch,
29 January 2015 www.hrw.org/world-report/2015/...
or
www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/wr2015_web.pdf [accessed 18 March
2015] SOUTH AFRICA POLICE CONDUCT - Serious concerns
remain about the conduct and capacity of the South African Police Services
(SAPS), both in terms of the use of force in general, as well as the ability
to deal with riots in a rights-respecting manner. The police lack proper
equipment and training to quell riots which often leads to the use of
excessive and disproportionate force. In 2014, incidents of police violence
were reported in Mothutlung in Brits, North West
province, Relela in Kgapane,
Limpopo province and Bekkersdal in Gauteng
province. In January 2014, police killed three people during a protest over
lack of water in Mothutlung. Leeuwkop Max C: Inmates
claim abuse and torture, turn to courts for relief Carolyn Raphaely, senior journalist, Wits Justice Project (WJP),
University of the Witwatersrand, 22 Aug 2014 [accessed 15
September 2014] After Llewellyn
Smith was brutally assaulted, stripped naked, electro-shocked and tortured in
the Leeuwkop Max C prison showers last week, his
wife Malanie brought an urgent application in the South
Gauteng High Court requesting that her husband was granted permission to see
a private medical practitioner, that he was x-rayed and permitted to lay
charges with the SAPS According to Malanie, “six inmates – including my husband - were taken
separately to the showers and repeatedly shocked with “boards” or electric
shock shields. They were made to squat and after each shock,
the warders put their fingers up their anus’ to search for contraband.
Llewellyn told me he was the second last to go into the showers. He said the
shower floors were full of faeces which must have
been from the other guys who were taken there before him…When you are shocked
it makes you defecate….” Torture made me
finger others: accused South African Press
Association SAPA, Nelspruit, 19 June 2014 www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/torture-made-me-finger-others-accused-1.1706038 [accessed 20 June
2014] One of the two men accused
of stealing 112 pieces of rhino horn from the MpumalangaTourism
and Parks Agency (MTPA) testified that police torture led him to falsely
implicate three other people in the crime. “I was covered with
a plastic over my head and a blanket from the neck down. Since I was
handcuffed and could not move, they stepped on my knees, kicked me on my
mouth which made me to lie,” he said. “At that stage, I
was not wearing my shoes. A policeman took them and used them to beat me up.
The torture stopped there and they said they would do to Mtshali
what they did to me,” he said. Man tortured for
days by cops gets R250 000 Zelda Venter,
Pretoria News, 4 June 2014 www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/man-tortured-for-days-by-cops-gets-r250-000-1.1698389 [accessed 14
September 2014] Police tortured a
Soweto man over several days, trying to suffocate him with a plastic bag, dripping
melting plastic on to his bare skin and even trying to extract the nail of
his big toe with an axe, causing permanent damage. The next day two
policemen took Makgale from his cell, cuffed his
hands behind his back and made him sit on a chair in an office. They pulled a glove with water over his
head to cover his face and he could not breathe. The police repeatedly asked him questions
about a stolen bakkie. Because he could not provide answers, Makgale was tortured further. He was taken to a stretch of veld and
assaulted before being taken back to his cell. Makgale said the
police fetched him again after a few hours and drove him to a parking lot
where eight men were waiting for him, including the owner of the bakkie. He was
told to lie on the ground, while one of the policemen sat on his back. He was again tortured with the glove and
water – a procedure that was repeated several times. The eight men – members of the public –
kicked and assaulted him and told him they were going to kill him. They placed a melting plastic bag over his
bare back, neck and ear, before hitting him with a rifle and sjamboks. Makgale said one of the men, using an axe, tried to
remove his toenail, but failed. He
was taken back to his cell, where he was left for two days with his hands
cuffed behind his back. Torture routine,
prisoners tell court South African Press
Association SAPA, Port Elizabeth, 23 May 2014 www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/torture-routine-prisoners-tell-court-1.1693259 [accessed 14
September 2014] According to court
documents, routine mistreatment - which included electric shocks - started
after a senior official, Babini Nqakula,
was stabbed to death inside the prison. Some of the 231
inmates bringing the case claim to have been forced by guards to strip naked
and lie on the floor in a human chain, with their noses touching the anus of
the inmate in front. Ahmed Patel, one of
four prisoners called to testify in court, said that he had to clean blood
and faeces strewn all over the maximum security
section after a round of beatings during a lockdown. “The inmates were crying like pigs,” he
said. “The treatment was so inhuman.
I saw warders' uniforms covered in blood, and they were drunk, hitting the
s**t out of prisoners.” Inmates claim
they were mistreated in a “revenge” attack by prison officials, and complain
that disciplinary charges against the guards involved were withdrawn. Cops deny torture
in muti murder case South African Press
Association SAPA, Mbombela, 27 February 2014 article.wn.com/view/2014/02/27/Cops_deny_torture_in_muti_murder_case/ [accessed 26 March
2014] Police officers
investigating a muti murder involving a
six-year-old Mpumalanga girl have denied torturing one of the accused into
confessing to the crime. The court heard
Zulu was tortured with a plastic bag and suffocated during interrogations
until she signed the confession. “It is not true
that I tubed her to make her confess. I know that she was taken to officer Mabunda for an interview. I was called as a female when she
needed to go to the toilet so that I could escort her,” said Detective
Constable Phumzile Shungube,
from Tonga police station. Defence lawyer Jacques Oosthuizen asked Shungube if
she recorded her work in her pocket book on a daily basis as required. She told the court
that she sometimes ran out of pocket books or lost them. Men accuse cops of
torture eNews Channel Africa eNCA, Pietermaritzburg, 16 February 2014 www.enca.com/south-africa/men-accuse-cops-torture [accessed 17
February 2014] "They took the
gloves, it's a tube, it's a rubber glove so they put
it on my face. They made sure they blocked my head and they blocked my nose
and they started punching me, slapping me on my face," said Ngcobo.
"They were saying if I want to tell them where I was taking the
cars to, I must tap on the floor with my foot." Ngcobo says he was
handcuffed to a chair and assaulted for five hours before being released. His colleague Justice
Ncobeni said he suffered a similar fate a few days
earlier. Radovan Krejcir tortured, electrocuted eNews Channel Africa eNCA, Johannesburg, 23 November 2013 www.enca.com/south-africa/radovan-krejcir-tortured-electrocuted-lawyers [accessed 24 Nov
2013] Radovan Krejcir's lawyers say he has been tortured by police,
electrocuted and suffered a severe beating. According to Krejcir's lawyers, the Czech businessman was suffocated
and tasered several times. Krejcir's
lawyers said he was examined by two doctors who confirmed the injuries. In the statement, Krejcir's lawyers alleged that he suffered cuts to his
wrists and forearms and a chemical substance was then poured over the wounds
which caused Krecjir severe pain." South African
police accused of routinely torturing crime suspects Carolyn Raphaely in Johannesburg for the Wits Justice Project,
The Guardian, 14 April 2013 www.guardian.co.uk/law/2013/apr/14/south-africa-police-accused-torture-suspects [accessed 15 April
2013] "They attached
wires to my penis and back from something that looked like an old
phone," he said. "Then they wound it up to get power to shock me.
It was very, very painful. I even wet myself." Dube said the officers
covered his head with a plastic bag and sealed it with duct tape. "They
only remove the plastic when you collapse, then they take it off. While they
were suffocating me, they put pepper spray inside the plastic bag and sealed
it. They kicked and punched me in the eye and ear. I still can't hear
properly." He says he was
taken to the balcony and hung upside down over the edge, an officer holding
each leg. That is when he agreed to co-operate with the investigation. "I was
terrified they'd drop me," Dube said.
"They told me places to point out, how to make a confession and what to
say. I did the pointing out the next day." Under apartheid,
the South African police were notorious for torturing and abusing political
detainees, with many unexplained deaths in police cells. But similar
brutality in the "new" South African police service has come to the
forefront recently, after the massacre of striking mine workers at Marikana and the death in the township of Daveyton of Mido Macia, a Mozambican who was tied to the back of a police
van and dragged along the road. The Independent
Complaints Directorate's 2011-12 report records 4,923 complaints received
against the police and 720 deaths in police custody or as a result of police
action. "Torture
hasn't suddenly reared its ugly head," said Professor Peter Jordi of the
Wits Law Clinic at the University of Witwatersrand, who specialises
in the subject of torture. "It's never stopped … It was carried out at
police stations before and continues today. Previously, it was believed that
mostly political detainees were tortured. If you're a criminal arrested for
armed robbery today, you face exactly the same fate." Torture claim: Cops
must pay up South African Press
Association SAPA, Johannesburg, 19 March 2013 www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Torture-claim-Cops-must-pay-up-20130319 [accessed 20 March
2013] Mofokeng testified
that he was handcuffed and his legs were tied together while he was
interrogated by two policemen. Water was poured
into a tube which was put on his face to suffocate him about four times. While torturing
him, one of the policemen insisted that he tell the truth. The policemen also
sat on his body while he was lying down and hit him with open hands so that
he sustained an injury to his head. He testified that
he fabricated a story and admitted to receiving R20 000 for his role in the
"robbery", because he was in excruciating pain and feared he would
be killed. Amateur video
brings police torture to light Faranaaz Parker, Mail & Guardian,
28 Feb 2013 mg.co.za/article/2013-02-28-amateur-video-brings-torture-into-light-of-day [accessed 1 March
2013] News that Daveyton police beat and dragged a man behind a police
van has sickened South Africans. But police torture of civilians is nothing
new. Mido Macia, a taxi driver, got into an altercation with police
after he was found to be obstructing traffic on a busy street. It's alleged
that he was further beaten after he was taken to the local police station. He
died in police custody as a result of his injuries. In February the
Mail & Guardian published an expose on the types of torture meted out to
marginalized people. At the time, Poonitha Naidoo, co-ordinator for the Medical Rights Advocacy Network,
said the most popular form of police torture in South Africa is called
'tubing' – a method of suffocation similar to the controversial waterboarding
torture technique. Widespread
brutality Gareth Newham, head of the Crime and Justice Programme
at the Institute for Security Studies, told the M&G that police brutality
is widespread in the South African Police Service. "Police
abuses, where police physically assault people are very widespread and are a
daily occurrence particularly against vulnerable and marginal groups,"
he said. "Police are
very quick to physically assault people especially when they believe those
people have little chance of reporting it and they can get away with
it." Policing
and Human Rights -- Assessing southern African countries’ compliance with the
SARPCCO Code of Conduct for Police Officials Edited by Amanda Dissel & Cheryl Frank, African Policing Civilian
Oversight Forum APCOF, 2012 ISBN:
978-1-920489-81-6 [accessed 25 March
2014] [SOUTH AFRICA] --
ARTICLE 4: TORTURE AND CRUEL, INHUMAN AND DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT No police official shall, under any circumstances,
inflict, instigate, or tolerate any act of torture and other cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment of any person. A briefing to
Parliament’s Safety and Security Portfolio Committee by then Acting ICD
Executive Director Elias Valoyi and provincial
directorate heads reportedly ‘told harrowing tales of the use of third-degree
methods, particularly by the organised crime and
national intervention units, which in at least one instance had led to death.
Methods of torture included repeated beatings, electrocution and suffocation
with plastic bags. In May 2012, 12
members of the SAPS’s
Directorate of Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks)
appeared in the Bellville Magistrate’s Court in connection with the murder in
2009 of 24-year-old Sidwell Mkwambi
and the kidnapping, assault and torture of his friends, Siyabulela
Njova and Mthuthuzeli Rantaoleng as well as other witnesses. Conclusions and
recommendations of the Committee against Torture U.N. Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment -- Doc. CAT/C/ZAF/CO/1
(2006) www1.umn.edu/humanrts/cat/observations/southafrica2006.html [accessed 6 March
2013] 19. The Committee
is concerned about the wide discretionary powers available to the National
Prosecuting Authority with regard to criminal justice (art. 12). 20. The Committee
is concerned at the high number of deaths in detention and with the fact that
this number has been rising. The
Committee is also concerned at the lack of investigation of alleged
ill-treatment of detainees and with the apparent impunity of law enforcement
personnel (art. 12). 21. Noting the
existence of legal-aid mechanisms, the Committee is concerned about the difficulties
vulnerable persons or groups experience in efforts to exercise their right to
complain, including for linguistic reasons, to obtain redress and fair and
adequate compensation as victims of acts of torture. It is further concerned at the lack of
awareness of the Convention’s provisions by vulnerable groups (arts. 13 and
10). AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL From an old article -- URL not available Article was
published sometime prior to 2015 DEATHS IN CUSTODY
AND EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS In April, the Independent
Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) Act became operational, making the
police liable to criminal charges for failure to co-operate with its
investigations. The IPID informed parliament that it had received 720 new
cases for investigation of suspicious deaths in custody or in other policing
contexts from April 2011 to March 2012. In May, after
numerous delays and obstructions, 12 police officers from the former
Bellville South Organized Crime Unit were charged in court with the abduction
and murder of Sidwell Mkwambi
in 2009 and the abduction and alleged torture of Siyabulela
Njova, who had been arrested with him. Sidwell Mkwambi’s body showed
multiple blunt force injuries to his head and body, which were inconsistent
with the police account of how he died. EXCESSIVE USE OF
FORCE In October, Daluvuyo Bongo, a witness from the National Union of
Mineworkers, was shot dead after assisting Commission officials; four
witnesses assisting lawyers representing the Association of Mineworkers and
Construction Union and injured miners were allegedly hooded, assaulted and
detained after leaving the Commission venue. The Legal Aid Board denied a
request for funding to ensure representation for scores of miners injured by
police on 16 August and others arrested and allegedly tortured in the
aftermath of the shootings. ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, March 8, 2006 www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61593.htm [accessed 12
February 2013] 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61593.htm [accessed 5 July
2019] TORTURE
AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT – The law
prohibits such practices; however, some police officers beat,
raped, tortured, and otherwise abused suspects. Police torture and abuse occurred
during interrogation, arrest, detention, and searches of persons' homes. The press reported
that many refugee seekers claimed that immigration personnel whipped, beat,
and subjected them to other brutal treatment. Despite promises by the
Minister of Home Affairs to investigate such claims, no investigations had
begun by year's end. No information was available on the case of four
soldiers arrested in 2004 on allegations of ambushing, stripping, raping, and
robbing illegal Zimbabwean immigrants. Freedom House
Country Report - Political Rights: 2 Civil
Liberties: 2 Status: Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2009/south-africa [accessed 12
February 2013] LONG
URL ç 2009 Country Reports begin on Page 21 [accessed 13 May
2020] Despite
constitutional prohibitions and government countermeasures, there have been
reports of police torture and excessive force during arrest, interrogation,
and detention. Deaths in custody continue to be a problem. Prisons often do
not meet international standards and feature overcrowding, inadequate health
care, and abuse of inmates by staff or other prisoners. In 2006, a commission
of inquiry found corruption, maladministration, and sexual violence to be
rife in the penal system. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this
webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance
& Other Ill Treatment in the early years of the 21st Century- South
Africa", http://gvnet.com/torture/SouthAfrica.htm, [accessed
<date>] |
