/ 19 February 2004

Paying their way back into SA

The controversial Lindela Repatriation Centre has again come under fire from the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) after a Malawian, who has had permanent residence status in South Africa since 1997, was detained there for five days.

Suzyo Kamanga’s* eyewitness account of his experience at Lindela in Randfontein, Gauteng, tells a horror story of assault at the centre where the only way out is through corrupt officials.

Lindela is a central holding point for illegal aliens before they are shipped home. Since the facility opened in 1996, the Mail & Guardian has reported extensively on human rights abuses and corruption inside the facility.

A traumatised Kamanga told the M&G that Lindela officials are only interested in how much money they can ”shake from us. If you can pay, you can leave.”

His eyes close in pain when he revives the memory of his time spent at the notorious facility. ”The people there do not respect us,” he said. ”They beat them [detainees] like criminals.

”There were a lot of beatings, but luckily I was not at the receiving end of them. I tried to be fast. If you are too slow to get into a queue, the guards beat you with a hosepipe.

”The people vomit in the rooms and when we call the guards, they spray you with a gas that stings your eyes and makes you gag,” he said. ”My eyes are still sore from that gas.”

In November last year police arrested four immigration officers working at Lindela after they had allegedly released 16 illegal immigrants. Statements police obtained from the released detainees revealed that they had had to pay more than R500 each to the officers. According to Kamanga, who earns about R450 a month as a gardener, his release was more costly: a bribe of R800.

”I am sad to say the human rights abuses situation has not changed at all in Lindela since we started monitoring the facility,” Zonke Majodina, deputy chairperson of the SAHRC, told the M&G this week.

”Unfortunately the Malawian’s case is not unique,” she said. ”Officers soliciting bribes from detainees are an everyday occurrence at the centre.”

Kamanga says his ordeal started two weeks ago when police picked him up while he was walking to work in the north-eastern suburbs of Johannesburg. He did not have his papers with him and the police took him to the Sandringham police station.

”Even then the police wanted to know how much money I had on me. But I did not have any money for them.”

At the police station he phoned his brother and asked him to bring proof of his permanent residence. But before his brother could arrive with his papers, he was transferred to Lindela. There he was held for five days, until his brother gave him the money to pay the bribe.

”The going rate for Malawians is R1 200, because Malawi is far away. Zimbabweans and Mozambicans pay cheaper bribes,” Kamanga said. ”I only had R800 to give and the home affairs official was happy with that.” He was allowed to keep R20 to pay for a taxi to take him back to Johannesburg.

Majodina said that though the SAHRC monitors and records human rights abuses at Lindela, it does not have the powers to prosecute corrupt officials.

Despite the Immigration Act, which regulates every step in the detention of an illegal alien, she said, Lindela has succeeded in breaking every regulation of the Act.

The SAHRC cooperates with Lawyers for Human Rights to moni-tor Lindela. Kaajal Ramjathan, a legal officer from Lawyers for Human Rights who deals with Lindela, says there are plenty of obstacles in fighting the corrupt practices of officials.

”Most of the victims are undocumented people, who are scared of being deported. People are reluctant to come forward and therefore the corruption is difficult to follow up. The human rights abuses we struggle with most at Lindela are prolonged detention and children in detention,” she said.

Lindela director Papa Leshabane said, ”I want details. If the SAHRC can come to me with the cases and issues in writing, I will investigate these claims myself.”

He said he would investigate Kamanga’s claims that he was tear-gassed. ”We only use tear gas for riots,” he said.

He did not want to comment on bribery allegations involving home affairs officials, saying he is only in charge of running the facility.

*Not his real name