At a press conference in London on 24 November Khosi Mbatha gave details of the six months she spent in detention between October 1981 and April 1982. Khosi and Alex Mbatha were taken from their home at gunpoint on 21 October with their youngest daughter, Dudu, aged three. Some reports of their ill-treatment have appeared in past issues of FOCUS.
Khosi Mbatha was seriously ill during her detention and it is clear that in her case she received no protection from the supposed safeguards in the system. In particular, she told how even after seeing a doctor she remained in the hands of the police who withheld her medicine at times.
Khosi Mbatha is a 40 year old mother of seven children. She and her daughter spent the first two days and two nights of their detention in an open cell because the alternative more sheltered accommodation was ankle-deep in water. Then the child was forcibly dragged from her. She later found out that Dudu was left unattended outside their house until friends took her in.
After this Khosi Mbatha began to suffer from severe headaches and heart palpitations. She said the ordinary police would not help and for nine days no-one from the security branch came to her cell. She was obliged to quench her raging thirst with water from the toilet bowl. When a doctor saw her he diagnosed high blood pressure, prescribed tablets and asked to see her again. She was subjected to intensive interrogation and assault as the police bullied her into admitting their allegations. She was physically beaten up and partly suffocated with a hood. Security police came to her cell at night threatening to shoot her or fake her suicide. One night 'they came with a wire. He says "I'm going to strange you because you don't want to tell the truth or tell me about other people. I will tell the whole world that you've committed suicide."' They withheld the tablets she required.
After almost a month of assault and intimidation her condition had deteriorated to the point where she lapsed into unconsciousness. When she came round she couldn't talk or move her right arm. The security police took her to hospital but after an injection she was returned to her cell to more interrogation and more assault.
When she was at last admitted to hospital the authorities gave her a false name (Mrs Brown), a false identity ('a terrorist from South West Africa') and a false illness ('highly infectious disease'). She was discharged back into police custody and although the rest of her detention period was spent in a women's prison she still suffered interference with her treatment.
Immediately on her release from detention Khosi Mbatha spent six weeks in hospital, followed by further weeks as an outpatient returning for treatment every two days. Throughout her detention she was deprived of news about her husband and daughter. None of the gifts left for her by friends were delivered. It seems that instead of her captors responding sympathetically to her illness they were actually enraged by it and behaved more brutally.
Khosi and Alex Mbatha continued to be harassed by security police after their release. They have now left South Africa.
