WIDESPREAD human rights violations, including the death of at least 39 detainees in police custody in suspicious circumstances and torture and ill-treatment of detainees and prisoners occurred in South Africa last year, according to Amnesty International.
In its annual report, Amnesty said there had been 4 300 political killings in South Africa last year.
It also referred to the Motsuenyane Commission of Inquiry into human rights abuses by ANC officials in exile, commenting that although the ANC leadership had assumed collective responsibility for the violations, it had not disciplined the perpetrators or removed them from authority.
Amnesty charged security force members had continued to commit extra-judicial executions and other breaches of human rights ”despite some attempts by the authorities to make police more accountable”.
It also accused police of involvement in assassinations of activists and Umkhonto weSizwe members, and in deaths in custody which appeared to be deliberate killings. -_ Sapa