A former hotel supervisor told the Swaziland High
Court police tortured her to try to make her confess to theft.
She said she was handcuffed, beaten, suffocated to
near death, and threatened with hanging. She complained later to the local police
commander but felt nothing was one about her complaint, so she went to court.
Phindile Mndzebele is claiming E750,000 (US$60,000) in
damages from the Royal Eswatini [Swaziland] Police Service.
She told the High Court was she was the house-keeping
manager at the Lugogo Sun hotel when a items and cash were reported stolen from
a room. Police accused her of the theft and took her in a police vehicle to a
forest up a mountain.
The Swazi Observer
reported on Thursday (31 May 2018) that she denied being involved in the theft.
Five officers were alleged to have forced her to sit on a grass mat and her
hands were cuffed and she was suffocated three times. She was told the assault
and suffocation would not stop until she soiled herself. One officer said she
would hang if she did not give up the stolen items.
The ordeal ended when the police officers were called
away to other duties.
The High Court was told doctors examined Mndzebele and
found her muscles were swollen as a result of the assault on her back. She also
had to attend daily counselling.
Reports of police torture are common in Swaziland. The
International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) in
a report on Swaziland published in May 2018 stated the Swazi State,
‘continues to be either actively involved in, or turn a blind eye to, torture’.
It added, ‘Reports of suspects dying in police
custody, workers assaulted by state police, suspects shot and killed
by the army, as well as suspected poachers tortured
and killed by game rangers and private farm owners have come to
characterize law enforcement in Swaziland.
‘Amnesty International reports that, in June 2015, a
Mozambican national living in Swaziland, Luciano
Reginaldo Zavale, died on the day he was arrested on allegations
that he was in possession of a stolen laptop. In August 2015, independent
forensic evidence indicated that he did not die of natural causes. An inquest
was established to investigate the death, but its findings have never been made
public.
‘In February 2016 at the Kwaluseni campus of the
University of Swaziland, a student of the University, Ayanda
Mkhabela, was run over by an armoured police vehicle during a
student protest and left paralysed. The Commissioner of Police publicly
announced that he would institute an investigation within the police service.
As at the end of 2017, no public investigation had been undertaken into the
incident. The Commissioner of Police had not made public the findings of the internal
investigation.’
The ICJ said there was generally no independent
mechanism for investigating abuses committed by the police.
It added, ‘The students involved in the protest have
instituted legal proceedings in respect of damages. The Government is defending
the action.’
The ICJ added, ‘Recent situations paint a gloomy
picture about the treatment of persons in custody. A former Member of
Parliament, Charles
Myeza, has added credence to the serious allegations of torture
at Bhalekane Correctional Facility, revealing in court papers that
officers also treated him in an inhumane way. Myeza, who was serving a
custodial sentence at the facility, alleged that he was stripped naked, smacked
on the buttocks and had his genitals squeezed by officers, in furtherance of a
common purpose to violate his right to dignity. The former Member of Parliament
is currently suing the Government.’
See also
ARMY
CONFIRMS SHOOT-TO-KILL POLICY
ANOTHER
FATAL SHOOTING BY RANGERS
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