A private farm watch group in KwaZulu-Natal has been accused of taking the law into its own hands Cheryl Goodenough Employees of a private farm protection organisation in rural southern KwaZulu- Natal have been implicated in a string of brutal attacks on farm labourers and rural communities that have left two dead and 16 badly injured. At least 16 cases of assault are being investigated against police and soldiers working in the greater Ixopo area, including Creighton, Highflats and Donnybrook. The Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) says the soldiers and policemen under investigation appear to have been working with employees from the farm protection organisation Ixopo Community Farm Watch. The KwaZulu-Natal head of the ICD, advocate S’thembiso “Stix” Mdladla, said the ICD is following up six cases of assault invol- ving soldiers and four involving police members that were opened at the Creighton police station. He confirmed employees from Farm Watch were allegedly involved in a number of the cases. Additional dockets have been opened at the Ixopo, Highflats and Donnybrook police stations. The latest victim, Gqomoza Mbhele, died in hospital on Tuesday. A witness to the assault said he and Mbhele were in a Creighton bar on August 25. Also in the bar was a police reservist, who is employed by Ixopo Community Farm Watch. The witness said he followed the sound of a commotion he heard outside shortly after the reservist left the bar. “I saw the suspect and another policeman assaulting a man. They were hitting him with a clenched fist, with an open hand and kicking him,” he said. Immediately after putting the man into a police van, the suspect turned to Mbhele and started to assault him, according to the witness. “They hit him with a clenched fist. He fell and they kicked him. Then they drove off.” The police returned about 30 minutes later and took Mbhele to a local hospital, said the witness. Mdladla says the police claim Mbhele and others intervened to try to prevent the arrest of a housebreaking suspect. They claim Mbhele, who was in his mid-20s, had a fit, fell and hit his head. Apart from a lump on the right side of his head, Mbhele had few injuries apparent to friends and family. Family members said Mbhele had also been examined by a Durban neurosurgeon after the assault, but a post- mortem is still to be conducted. In July a Farm Watch employee and police reservist, John Arkley, was arrested for the murder of Basil Jaca on a farm about 5km from Ixopo. His co-accused are six soldiers – Bhekabantu Dlamini, Brandon Eldridge, Mlungwana Ngcamu, Reginald Mazibuko, Sifiso Mlaba and Philani Ntombela.
The incident occurred when the security personnel were searching for illegal weapons on a farm at about 6am on a Saturday, according to evidence in their bail application. The state alleges that Arkley and Eldridge stood outside the house, while four soldiers took Jaca inside and penetrated his anus with a rifle. A fourth soldier allegedly held Jaca’s wife at gunpoint outside the door. Jaca died a day after the attack. The seven are also expected to face two counts of assault for another attack during the same raid at a house about 500m away from Jaca’s residence. Captain Bongani Sibiya and Inspector Zibuse Gwala told the court that among the items sent for forensic testing are a plastic bag allegedly put over Jaca’s face, a sample of a substance believed to be faeces that was taken from the barrel of a firearm used by one of the soldiers, and a jacket that was allegedly used by the soldiers to wipe faeces off the rifle. Another man was allegedly assaulted on the back, arm and head on August 27 in the rural village of Sibizane outside Centocow, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Creighton police station. In an interview this week the man, who asked not to be named, could not recall the number of policemen that arrived at his house at about midday. They were travelling in two police vans and a bakkie usually driven by one Farm Watch employee, he said. They claimed to be looking for a person in connection with weapons and then “started beating me up”. The police took two men with them when they left. One was released later that day, while the other has been charged.
Ixopo Community Farm Watch managing director Clive Lea-Cox said he is not aware of many of the allegations. He said the employees “most definitely weren’t involved in Farm Watch operations” and operate on occasion in their capacity as police reservists.
The case in which the soldiers have been charged is just one of 38 cases involving South African National Defence Force members from KwaZulu-Natal that are currently before courts, according to Colonel John Rolt, acting chief of defence corporate communication. Of these, 16 are murder cases, 13 reckless and negligent driving cases, four assault or attempted murder cases and seven cases involve commandos. Eighteen members stationed in the province have been arrested this year for cases that date back to May 1998. Included are several cases in which the state has not paid for legal representation and some where the soldiers have since left the defence force. Rolt says: “Please note that these cases have yet to be tried and that the [police] always open a case of murder when a person is killed. It would be unfair to assume or to imply that these people are guilty of any offences because their guilt or innocence still has to be proved in a court of law.”