When 14-year-old Joyce Gwabasa went to the police station near her home on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast, to report a street fight, she had no idea that the two officers whom she trusted to deal with the crime would attempt to rape her.
The two police officers, Senzo Gumede (26) and Lucky Fortune Mbokasi (32), have since been suspended from duty and are currently out on bail after being charged with attempted rape, but Joyce’s family says they have been intimidated by other police officers in an attempt to force them to drop the case.
It is tempting to view Joyce’s experience as an isolated incident, but it is, in fact, part of a worrying pattern. The provincial minister for safety and security, Bheki Cele, admitted this is one of many cases of abuse by police officers in the province. Cele said Folweni police station, where the attempted rape occurred, crops up “time and time again” in cases related to abuse by police officers.
Most alarming, however, is his admission that Folweni is just one of nine police stations in the Durban area “with bad, bad police officers working there”. He went on to say, “I am aware of many cases of abuse by police officers against women, which I am dealing with.”
At 9pm on Christmas Day, Joyce and her 12-year-old sister were sent by their mother to Folweni police station, one kilometre from their home, to report a street fight in which their cousin was involved. According to Joyce’s statement to the Child Protection Unit, “We were attended by three male policemen who told us to sit down and wait … I think about three hours had passed when a police van arrived … I was told by one of the policemen to go and sit at the back of the van, my sister was told to sit in the front with the driver.”
She describes how she and her sister were driven to the place where the street fight had occurred, to find that the protagonists had fled the scene. Instead of taking them home, the policemen drove the two girls to the Nsimbini police station about 4km from their home.
Joyce’s statement says Gumede instructed her to follow him into the charge office. She followed him down a well-lit corridor to a room. “I stood in front of the door and he told me to come inside but I refused. This room looked very dirty, used condoms were all around and there were used tissue papers and there was also this dirty bed he was seated on.”
He forced her into the room and “pulled me down on to the bed and we struggled as he tried to pull down my pants … he tried to kiss me … I managed to rise up to the door but [he grabbed me] and then told me that he is a very responsible man and he will use a condom … he was all sweaty and breathing heavily like someone with a high blood pressure.”
She describes how during their struggle, Gumede slipped on to the floor, which gave her time to escape. According to the statement, Mbokasi allegedly stood by and watched the entire incident “laughing”.
“I went outside to the van and my sister asked me what had happened and I told her that we will talk about this once we reach home … [the two policemen] then took us home and on the way [Mbokasi] asked me why I refused to have sex … he insulted me and told me that I should have slept with Gumede because he has got money. He then held both my hands down while Gumede touched me on my breasts and private parts.”
Jackie Branfield, director of Bobbi Bear, an NGO that provides medical assistance and counselling to sexually abused children, has despatched a safety officer to protect Joyce’s family following several threats allegedly made by other police officers.
The police watchdog body, the Independent Complaints Directorate, received reports of 383 deaths in police custody in the country in the year to March 2004, signifying a national trend. Last month United States-based organisation Human Rights Watch released its annual review in which it slams the South African Police Service for excessive use of force, mistreatment of foreigners and violence against women and children.
* Not her real name