Ann Eveleth
Six northern KwaZulu-Natal police officers received jail sentences this week for torturing an African National Congress- aligned community activist and his relatives.
Magistrate Amanda Venter handed down the ruling in a tiny civil courtroom in the Empangeni Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, nearly two-and-a-half years after members of the Mtubatuba-based public order policing unit (Popu) kidnapped activist Kevin Kunene and tortured him for 19 hours.
Venter convicted Popu members Werner Strasser, Bhekumuzi Skhakane, Dickson Ntuli, Thokozani Ximba, Gordon Sithole and Thounhlanhla Mshengu on two counts of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm and two counts of common assult. Two other Popu members, Thembinkosi Masilela and Abednigo Mzaibuko, were found not guilty on all charges.
Sentencing the convicted policemen, Venter said the assault was aggravated by the fact that the policemen had shown no remorse, but had instead attempted to deceive the court about the nature of the incident.
The six will serve two-year prison terms for the first two counts, while a second two-year sentence for the common assault charges was suspended for five years.
The Network of Independent Monitors (NIM), which called in the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) to rescue Kunene from his kidnappers, said Venter had also stated that she was not impressed with the testimony of the unit’s former commander, Superintendent Christo Pelser.
“[Venter said] he had contradicted himself, had lied to Kunene’s lawyer, and, considering his rank and experience, had not competently dealt with the allegations made against his men,” said an NIM statement.
Pelser, the subject of widespread concern among provincial violence monitors, initially told the court that Kunene had not been kidnapped, but had come to the unit’s headquarters voluntarily in his role as an informer for the unit. He later testified that Kunene had in fact been arrested.
The ICD rescued Kunene from the unit headquarters through a “hot extraction” operation. Independent pathology tests conducted afterward supported Kunene’s claims that he and his relatives had been beaten, kicked and suffocated with a rubber tube.
Kunene said he and three relatives had been abducted from their homes in the early hours of the morning, shunted from place to place in a police bakkie and tortured. “They told me today is my last day – that I’m going to die,” he said.
NIM said the six policemen appeared stunned on Tuesday when their jail sentences were handed down.
NIM praised the efforts of state prosecutor Cornel Stander and welcomed the verdict, which it said “supports our suspicion that the unit, under the former command of …Pelser, was involved in activities aimed at destabilising the ANC along the north coast of KwaZulu-Natal”.
NIM repeated its call for a full investigation into the activities of the unit and its former commander. At least 10 dockets were opened against the unit between 1994 and 1997, but this week’s ruling marks the first criminal conviction of unit members in connection with their activities.