BRENDAN BOYLE, Pretoria | Friday
ONE of the three black men mauled by South African police dogs in an attack billed by their white handlers as a training exercise has told how his attackers had offered him freedom for R300 – but he didn’t have it.
Mozambican labourer Gilbert Ntimane, who now works at a stone quarry in the Northern Province, told an South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) team that he and his brother, Alexander, were picked up in Benoni in January, 1998, while looking for work.
”The police asked us for identification, but we didn’t have any. They asked us for R300, but we didn’t have it,” he said.
Ntimane said they were forced into a minibus with a third man, Sylvester Khosa, and driven to an open field.
He described an attack similar to the video record of the assault in which six white policemen encouraged four police dogs to savage the men in turn.
The footage shows Ntimane begging for mercy as one of the dogs bites him in the groin and then on the legs. As he pleads with the policemen, a second dog is set upon him with the handlers screaming encouragement.
After the assault, they were taken to a state hospital for superficial treatment before being locked up in one jail for a week and another for three weeks. After that, they were deported to Mozambique, one of Africa’s poorest countries.
Police and the SABC traced three possible victims, but could not confirm that the three men identified by the SABC were all victims of the 1998 attack.
The SABC said that one victim, Khosa, had collapsed while watching the documentary, but had later reported to police, who placed him in a witness protection programme.
Six white policemen were denied bail at a hearing on attempted murder charges after police said they needed more time to construct a case against them. The six, aged between 27 and 32, were arrested after the SABC gave government and police officials a preview of the video broadcast later that day.
The policemen, who beat the victims when they tried to fend off the dogs, laughed and cheered throughout the assault. One told the camera: ”This is a training exercise.” – Reuters