Equipment that reveals if people have received electric shocks has forced the police to fork out or face the courts, reports Angella Johnson
HUNDREDS of thousands of rands have been paid out to victims of police torture in cases settled out of court in Gauteng over the past year, following new forensic initiatives by the Wits Law Clinic.
Peter Jordie, an attorney at the clinic, said torture was still being widely used by specialist police teams as part of normal investigative procedure.
“And not just for getting confessions from suspected criminals,” he added. “They use it to trace firearms, to get witnesses to talk – in fact to get any kind of information from suspects.”
He added: “When I visit jails and ask prisoners if they had been tortured at least half respond with an affirmative.”
Jordie said torture was particularly prevalent in specialised detective units such as murder and robbery. Brixton was among the main perpetrators.
Last week he settled one case against Brixton after two security guards working in Braamfontein were tortured for alleged involvement in a bank robbery.
“These men had electrodes attached to their genitals and were suffocated with rubber hoses repeatedly over a period of two days in 1994.”
After civil litigation was brought by the University of the Witwatersrand Law Clinic, one man received R50 000 and the other R45000 for acute post-traumatic stress and a degree of impotence which resulted from their treatment.
Jordie, who said there were hundreds of alleged torture cases across the country every year, but that lawyers often turned them down because corroboration was difficult, was able to take action thanks to new scientific testing methods.
“If someone comes to us within a few weeks of being tortured we can test their blood to determine the levels of enzymes caused by electrocution.”
Tests can also be done to find metal atoms from electrodes which are transferred to the skin, proving conclusively that torture took place. In one instance a rubber hose found inside a police station was tested and found to have saliva particles on it.
Most cases were settled by the police for between R30 000 and R50 000. He could not say exactly how much money the police have paid in total to his clients, but estimated it at several hundred thousand rands.
The clinic recently took on four new clients following the arrest of 11 suspected hijackers by the Brixton Murder and Robbery Unit.
The four, including a 15-year-old and a 17- year-old, claimed they had been tortured by members of the Brixton vehicle theft unit and Jordie is now awaiting the results of their tests.
Jan Munnik, Witwatersrand police reporting officer, said Brixton was one of the most notorious units regarding allegations of torture. The Complaints Investigation Unit had examined 52 reports of police torture since 1994: 36 were substantiated cases, and 18 involved Brixton, nine of them within the past nine months.
One case involving 11 officers has been sent to the Witwatersrand attorney general’s office which will decide whether or not to prosecute.
“We are also busy preparing a number of other dockets for submission to the attorney general within the next few weeks,” said Munnik “Only when we begin to see prosecutions against these people, as happened in the Vaal Triangle, will we put an end to these abuses.”