At least one more person detained under security laws is known to have died while in detention since Steve Biko's death. He is Bonaventura Sipho Malaza, an 18-year-old schoolboy from the black township of Kagiso, near Krugersdorp. His family, who said he was detained in Krugersdorp on 1 July, was told of his death on 7 November. The police told the family that Sipho hanged himself.
A post-mortem was carried out at the Government Mortuary in Johannesburg on 18 November. The principal of the youth's school in Kagiso said he was shattered at the news of Sipho's death. "He was the most brilliant student I have come across. He came top of his class in June and I have no doubt he would have passed his Junior Certificate with a distinction."
His death brings the total number of people known to have died while in security police detention since March 1976 to 25, and to 47 since 1963.
However, several other persons are reported to have died in the last two months while being held in police custody, or shortly after being released from detention, and their deaths serve to illustrate that the figures 25 and 47 refer only and specifically to those people detained incommunicado under South Africa's security laws. In 1976 alone, 130 people died while in police custody, and of these 13 were reported to be political detainees.
The recent deaths referred to above were:
A 16-year-old girl from Alexandra township, Johannesburg, Patricia Esther Mnisi, who had been in hospital since her release from detention more than two months ago, died at Rietfontein Hospital, Edenvale on 5 November. She was detained for nearly six weeks and released on 25 August and admitted to Tembisa Hospital that day. On 21 October she was taken to Rietfontein Hospital in a serious condition. She was reported to be suffering from extensive bilateral tuberculosis.
A 17-year-old youth, Mbulelo Rocky James, from Cradock, Cape, who was arrested by police under the Riotous Assemblies Act on 8 November, died the following day. The police alleged he died after escaping from police custody. A senior police officer in Port Elizabeth said Mbulelo was questioned in the Bantu Administration Board offices in Lingellhile township on 8 November and that Mbulelo escaped from the building at 3.20 on the following morning. The officer alleged that police gave chase and fired two shots "as he ran further into the location".
However the attorney acting on behalf of the James family, said the boy's body was found naked by township residents walking to work on the morning of 9 November. The police officer denied that the body was naked. The officer also said that a post-mortem examination had been carried out but that the results were not known. The family's attorney said he was shocked to hear that a post-mortem had already been held.
Mzukisi Nobhadula, an awaiting trial prisoner, died in unexplained circumstances in North End Prison, Port Elizabeth, on 20 December. He was due to appear on a perjury charge, arising out of evidence he had given in an incitement trial the previous week.
Mr. Nobhadula's death was first made public on 20 December by an attorney, Mr. John Jackson, during a bail application in another case before a Port Elizabeth regional court. Mr. Jackson told the court that he saw Mr. Nobhadula on 19 December (the day before he died) and that he appeared to be in perfect health, although he was an asthma sufferer. A statement by the Prisons Department, said his death was "presumably owing to natural causes".
A senior police officer said in a statement the following day after a post-mortem examination in Port Elizabeth, that no signs of any criminal offence causing Mr. Nobhadula's death in prison were revealed by the examinations but that more tests would be made before an official report would be issued by the police.
A 27-year-old salesman, Mr. Moonsammy "Vella" Pillay, of Lenasia, near Johannesburg was reportedly found dead in his prison cell at Lenasia police station on Christmas Day. He was married with four children. He had been taken into custody on Christmas morning. His family apparently learnt of his death when they went later to the police station to try to get him released. He was also taken into custody earlier in the month when he made a complaint to the police alleging that damage had been caused to his car. A friend of his claimed Vella was assaulted on this occasion. The dead man's brother Mr. Krishna Pillay, said police arrived at their home and took Vella away. Mr. K. Pillay said his brother was assaulted in the police van, before they drove him off.
INQUESTS HAFFEJEE The inquest into the death in detention on 3 August of Dr. Hoosen Haffejee has been postponed till early in 1978, it was reported on 7.12.77. The hearing was due to have taken place the previous day. It was also revealed that the dead man's family are to sue the Minister of Justice and Police for "several hundred thousand rand" over his death. This civil action would be lodged in January 1978, it was disclosed. Dr. Haffejee's brother said his family had still not been given a copy of the official post-mortem report. Neither had they been able to get copies of affidavits from the policemen involved in his brother's detention. It was reported that intruders broke into three offices in December, including that of the advocate representing Dr. Haffejee's family, and ransacked files.
MZIZI A Durban magistrate recused himself on 13 December from hearing the inquest into the death of Byempin Mzizi, who died in security police detention on 15 August. The magistrate said he had visited detainees as part of his duties as a magistrate, and although he had never seen Mr. Mzizi, he had received the reports of other magistrates who had visited him while he was being detained under the Terrorism Act. In the circumstances he considered it advisable to recuse himself from the case, which would be sent to another magistrate for a later date.
HOOSEN HAFFEJEE Amnesty International published photographs of Dr. Hoosen Haffejee's body at a press conference in London on 9 November, and demanded a full inquiry into his death in South African security police detention. Dr. Haffejee, a 26-year-old dentist, died in a police cell hours after being detained on 3 August. Police claimed he hanged himself.
The colour photographs showed wounds and abrasions to Dr. Haffejee's body. Dr. S.R. Albrechtsen, a Danish forensic expert consulted by Amnesty, said at the press conference that some of the wounds were consistent with having been inflicted shortly before Dr. Haffejee died. They could have been caused by a blunt instrument. There was no evidence of constriction of the neck, he said.
Dr. Albrechtsen said it was not possible to arrive at a definite conclusion as to the cause of the death in the absence of the autopsy report which had not been made public. He appealed to Dr. I. Gordon of Natal University, who carried out the post-mortem examination, to make his findings known.
A member of Dr. Haffejee's family, Mrs. Rabia Rahim, told the press conference of the arrest of her nephew and the conflicting accounts the police gave of his death.
STEVE BIKO The inquest into the death of Steve Biko who died in detention on 12 September opened with unusual celerity on 14 November in the Old Synagogue, Pretoria. Evidence given by the Security Police revealed that Biko had been held in solitary confinement, manacled and naked for two weeks after his arrest, and taken for interrogation at the Security Police HQ in Port Elizabeth on 6 September.
Early on 7 September, a scuffle occurred during interrogation, said the police; Biko 'bumped his head' and was returned to his cell. He had, as the post-mortem report showed, sustained severe brain damage which caused him to die gradually, as physical functions deteriorated, over the next few days. Several doctors who examined Biko in custody revealed that neither they nor the police had provided the necessary medical treatment, and that Biko's last journey, 750 miles naked in the back of a Land Rover, had been authorised by both doctors and police. The inquest verdict was announced on 2 December; it was that the death could not be attributed to any person. The police were thus cleared of murder, through what the London Times described as 'a conspiracy of silence and lies'.
Following the verdict, lawyers acting for the Biko family instituted a claim for damages against the Ministers of Justice (responsible for the Security Police) and of Health (responsible for the doctors who examined Biko) for R178,000. The cost to the family of legal representation at the inquest is estimated at around R75,000, which is to be paid by the South African Council of Churches' Asingeni Relief Fund.
A special report on the Biko case is currently being prepared for IDAF by Hilda Bernstein. Details will appear in FOCUS shortly.
