Four members of the Security Police have been acquitted on charges of culpable homicide relating to the death of Joseph Mdluli, an ANC leader, on 19 March. Capt. David F. van Zyl, Lt. Andrew R.C. Taylor, and Det. Sgts. M.P. Makhanya and Z. Ngobese pleaded not guilty before Mr. Justice James, judge-president of the Natal Supreme Court. They did not give evidence in person, and therefore could not be cross-examined, but the prosecution described to the court their version of what had happened.
This was that during interrogation Mdluli let slip the name of a taxi-driver. Upset by this, he attempted to escape through a window. A fierce struggle ensued, in which all the accused took part, to restrain Mdluli, who was a very strong man. A few hours later, on the afternoon of the day after Mdluli's arrest, interrogation was resumed, and continued till 8.30pm when Mdluli stood up, holding his head and complaining of dizziness, staggered and fell, hitting the back of a chair with his neck or chest. He died an hour later.
The evidence of the 3 main prosecution witnesses, all forensic experts, conflicted with this account. Government pathologist, Dr. B.J. van Straaten, described extensive injuries on Mdluli, including a fractured cartilage and bruising in the neck caused by at least two applications of force, extensive bruising on the forehead, temporal area and the back of the scalp, abrasions in several places, deep bruising near the rib cage and three fractured ribs. His initial view was that strangulation was the cause of death. No mention was made to him of a fall on to a chair. Mdluli appeared to have been dead for longer than the period suggested by the accused. But Dr. van Straaten "did not take the body temperature as there was the cream of police society telling me that this man had collapsed in their presence."
The second expert, Professor I. Gordon of Natal University, chief government pathologist in Durban, like van Straaten, expressed strong doubts that the injuries could have been caused by a fall. He thought that a blow to the neck could have occurred, and in consultation with van Straaten changed the description of the cause of death from strangulation to "the application of force to the neck". Professor Shapiro's evidence was to similar effect.
Acquitting the accused, the judge ruled that the case against the policemen was not proved. The medical evidence showed that Mdluli died, probably around 9pm, almost immediately after receiving neck injuries. "If he had died of these injuries in the morning after a scuffle with the 4 accused, all the policemen in the building would have had to enter an elaborate conspiracy to conceal his death till that evening. I consider the probabilities overwhelming that the accused did not give Mdluli the fatal injuries to his neck that morning. As this was the only occasion on which it is alleged that they assaulted Mdluli it follows that they were not responsible for his death."
The police version of what happened, he ruled, did not satisfactorily explain Mdluli's injuries, the story of the fall over a chair was open to 'very considerable doubts', and further investigation was required to establish how Mdluli met his death. This important matter should not be left in its highly unsatisfactory condition, he added.
