Cape Town - A father from impoverished and overcrowded Hangberg in Hout Bay says he is going ahead with a civil case against police after he was beaten, suffocated and dragged out of his home in the early hours of the morning late last month.
Santonio Jonkers appeared in Wynberg Magistrate’s Court on Thursday on a charge of contempt of a high court order after he had built a shelter for himself and his family in the firebreak above Hangberg.
His case was, however, postponed until November 3 as his name appeared incorrectly on documentation as Tony Jonkers. His arrest on September 30 sparked a riot in the area when cars were torched and residents vented their anger by targeting an upmarket block of flats nearby.
On Thursday Jonkers said he was waiting to hear what was happening with his charge against the police. He claims he was brutally beaten in front of his seven-year-old son on the night of his arrest.
With almost 50 Hangberg residents at court to show their support, Jonkers stood outside on Thursday after being freed on bail for a second time.
He said there was no warning when police kicked his door in at 2am and beat him and suffocated him until he passed out.
“They knocked me out twice in the house with my son in the room,” he said.
When his son, Liam, screamed, he said he heard someone say “put a blanket over him and shut his mouth”.
To protect his son, he said, he went with the police, but was afraid when he heard gunshots and saw rocks being thrown. He ran away, but fell after just a few steps.
“They beat me up again. When I woke up I was being dragged by my hair - naked.”
He said he was then taken to Stellenbosch Police Station where he remained in a cell for two days before he was given clothes to wear.
His mother Fadwah Vardien said her son, his fiancée and their son are now living with her.
“He’s living in my kitchen with his family, sleeping in front of my fridge,” she said.
The high court order said no one could build in the Hangklip firebreak, but there were no meetings to inform the community, she added.
Vardien asked: “How can you say somebody is a criminal when they didn’t know?”
Jonkers’s fiancée, Tania Fortuin, said she had a kidney removed three weeks before police evicted them from their home and “smacked” her.
“It was horrible. I still don’t sleep at night,” she said.
They are sleeping on a thin mattress in Vardien’s home because they have no choice.
“I don’t want my child to go through that again. I wish it could just be over so we can move back. We just want a roof over our heads,” she said, adding it “has to be in Hout Bay” because it is the only home Jonkers has known.
Hout Bay Civic Association spokesman Roscoe Jacobs said the association had a public meeting with the area’s councillor on Wednesday when Hangberg’s housing problem was discussed. The meeting resolved to march on November 1 to identify land and call on the city to buy or expropriate it for housing, he said.
Cape Times