Inside it sat an informer who called out the words "positive" or "negative" as each person passed. Everyone tagged as "positive" was promptly arrested.
The scene was described in parliament this week by the PFP's Helen Suzman who said she had 37 affidavits in her possession, all "telling a sorry tale of torture and ill-treatment". Suzman said she had an affidavit which described how police stationed a minibus in the township of KwaZakhele, near Port Elizabeth. The vehicle was fitted with windows of one-way glass.
"All the men and boys in the townships were made to line up in a queue and file past the minibus, while a man inside called out "positive" and "negative". "All the people claimed to be "positive" were promptly arrested, taken to prison or police cells and later interrogated.
"Precisely the same procedure were followed at Red Location in Port Elizabeth in December, only women were also included. "What sort of information is that?" Suzman asked. The process was "another sort of people's court of the type so roundly condemned, quite properly, by the minister when used in the townships".
The Eastern Cape was "notorious" for the methods of interrogation used on detainees. Methods of interrogation used now by the security police "are more sophisticated than the old-fashioned, kicking and hitting techniques. "They have perfected methods which leave no trace of the injuries inflicted."
Included in such methods is one in which "a wet bag is placed over the head of the person being interrogated and it is pulled tight, being released only when the person is half-dead. "If that doesn't suffice to extract the required confession or information, another type of bag with electrodes attached is used."
Suzman said that not only was there no physical evidence of interrogation left but the anonymity of the interrogators was ensured by hooding the detainee. She said she had 37 affidavits all telling "a sorry tale of torture and ill-treatment" and there were those produced by the Detainees' Parents Support Committee, the conclusions drawn by the criminology department at the University of Cape Town, allegations by the National Medical and Dental Association and other investigations.
"It seems to me that a cast-iron case bad been made out for a proper investigation, an independent inquiry with special reference to the indemnity clause which I have no doubt encourages excesses in the exercise of their powers by the security police."
This article originally appeared in the Weekly Mail.
