The violent treatment of people held by the police in South Africa, whether under security legislation or under the Criminal Procedure Act, was highlighted during May by the deaths of three people in custody or shortly after their release. (See also POLITICAL TRIALS for other instances of violence against people in police custody)

In the space of eight days three people died soon after being taken into custody in circumstances which led families and others to believe that violence by police caused their deaths.

  • Sipho MUTSI (20), the organiser of the COSAS branch in Odendaalsrus in the Orange Free State, died on Sunday 5 May. He had been arrested the day before and held under the Criminal Procedure Act for questioning on charges of public violence. He was in good health at the time of his arrest.

According to the police Mutsi started having convulsions and fell off a chair while having his particulars taken. He was taken to a hospital in Welkom and later transferred to another in Bloemfontein, but was dead on arrival.

Doctors in Welkom said that Mutsi was suffering from head injuries which the hospital was not equipped to deal with. A pathologist retained by Mutsi's family said that Mutsi died of a severe brain haemorrhage, and that he could not detect any signs of epilepsy. Others held at the same police station said that Mutsi was tortured by the police and that a policeman was seen kicking his head while he lay hand-cuffed on the floor. It was also reported that there were whip marks on his body.

Raditsela was being questioned near his parents' home in Tsakane by uniformed police about a car hired for him by FOSATU, when riot police patrolling the street assaulted him and took him away in an armoured vehicle. His parents next saw him a few hours later, lying on the floor at the Development Board Office, in a dazed state and with a swollen face. Later the police told them he was ill and had been taken to a local hospital and then transferred to Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto. He died two days later of head injuries.

  • Mohamed-Allie RAZAK (28) died at Baragwanath Hospital on 12 May two days after his arrest. The police said that Razak, whom they say was arrested on suspicion of impersonating a policeman, shot himself after grabbing a revolver which they had confiscated from him. However, his fiancées' father, present when the police arrested Razak, said that the police removed the magazine from the revolver when they confiscated it.
  • Questions have also been raised about the death of another young man shortly after his arrest. Bheki MVULANE (18) died on 29 March after being admitted to hospital in a coma. He had been arrested on 18 February in Katlehong and appeared in court on charges of public violence on 21 February with eight others. The case was remanded to 7 March. According to the police he complained of feeling unwell on 23 February and was admitted to hospital where he died on 29 March.

A former fellow-detainee, however, told a newspaper that he saw Mvulane being beaten and kicked by policemen hours before he died. He said: 'I saw a white policeman in Katlehong police station fling Bheki against a wall, and when he crashed on the floor another officer trampled him on the head. He collapsed and never regained consciousness'.

  • There have been further developments concerning a suspected death in detention reported in the last issue of FOCUS (p.6). Talleheho KOROTSOANE (28), a resident of the Vaal Triangle, was last seen by his family on 3 September 1984. The Detainees Parents Support Committee has expressed fear that he died while in detention under Section 29 of the Internal Security Act. The police have stated that they have no record of his having been detained. His grandmother, however, has said that his mother twice took food parcels for him during February and March to the Vereeniging Police Station and that they were accepted. His family also say that a policeman told them in March that he had died in hospital.

On 26 March Benedicta Korotsoane said that she identified her missing grandson from a collection of police photographs at the Vereeniging Police Station, of people who the police said had died during the unrest in the Vaal Triangle in 1984. She said that when she told this to the police, two of them conferred in Afrikaans, apparently believing she would not understand: One said 'Yes it's him' and the other replied 'Now they will look for the body'. She and her daughter were then told that the picture was of someone else who had died years before.

COUNTRYWIDE PROTESTS

The list of detentions opposite reflects the widespread nature of the protests which occurred during the first part of this year, in terms both of geographical spread and of the organisations involved. Youth organisations predominate, followed by trade union organisations. A large proportion of the organisations affected are affiliated to the UDF.

The detentions were on a number of occasions preceded by statements by the State President or other senior government figures.

In the days just before and after the police killings of 20 people at Langa on 21 March, the State President spoke of a 'drastic escalation of a revolutionary climate', and described the UDF as 'an internal extension of the ANC'. A number of detentions in the Eastern Cape followed shortly afterwards.

On 22 April both the State President and the Minister of Law and Order made similar statements, at a time when detentions were taking place of members of COSAS, SAAWU and the UDF. Those detained included Patrick LEKOTA, the Publicity Secretary of the UDF and two members of the National Executive, Moss CHIKANE and Popo MOLEFE, all three of whom had been previously detained.

CISKEI BANTUSTAN

At least 38 people were detained by the Ciskei bantustan security police on 27 and 28 March. Those detained were active in a wide range of political, trade union, community and welfare organisations. Several of them are well known opponents of the bantustan leaders. Many of the organisations affected are affiliated to the UDF. Most of those detained were released after two weeks on 9 April. Only Alfred METELE was known to be still in detention after that date.

Alfred Metele was one of several people who had previously been detained. He is an official of the Dependants Conference of the South African Council of Churches, a relief organisation assisting political prisoners, former prisoners and their dependants. He was formerly detained between 14 December 1984 and 23 January 1985.

Bonile Lawrence TULUMA had been released from custody only the previous week after being given a suspended sentence of one year in the Johannesburg Regional Court, for possessing a copy of a message by Oliver Tambo, President of the ANC.

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