Cape Town - The Ukubavimba Foundation has laid a complaint of police brutality at the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) on behalf of a Delft couple who were assaulted allegedly by the police last month.
Merle Crouster said her husband sustained a bruised toe while she suffered a broken collarbone and elbow, and was denied medical treatment for 36 hours while in police custody after they were arrested on bogus accusations.
The foundation's managing director Jeremiah Manuel said they were in possession of a pile of complaints about police brutality that stretched the length and breadth of the Western Cape.
“It's a widespread problem, the access to information is very limited to the working class, and less accessible to rural and peri-rural communities. Apart from access to information pertaining to procedures to report SAPS brutality, we observe how some members try defeating the ends of justice through intimidating witnesses and the refusal to open cases.
“We are of the view that not all cases amount to criminal cases, while some cases require a civil lawsuit as well as a criminal inquest,” he said.
Crouster said she was angry as she lost her elder sister under similar circumstances 16 years ago.
“The same police station took my sister under the same circumstances, and is doing the same thing to me. I want them to go to jail and something must happen to those officers who were just standing there while I was begging for help and did not do anything.
“This has affected me greatly, I was so scared for my mother because this happened to her eldest daughter and she couldn't sleep for days.
“We now have the problem with my husband's J88 form (which documents a person’s injuries) because the doctor who was supposed to fill it in has apparently gone missing at the Delft hospital,” she said.
Manuel said that from a crime intelligence perspective it was clear state resources were wasted as nothing was verified by the police management. He said the disconnect and double standards by police should stop, and perpetrators once found guilty must feel the full might of the law.
Ipid was approached for comment but had not responded by the time of publication.
Cape Argus