Tshwarelo Hunter Mogakane
Pretoria - A Mpumalanga police officer has opened a case of attempted murder against his superiors, accusing them of suffocating him with a plastic bag and using an electrical device to shock him into confessing to a crime he did not commit.
In an exclusive interview, Sergeant Andries Zongezile Somzi told the Pretoria News that he remained traumatised after the incident last month.
“It’s still difficult to sleep. I don’t know when last I felt safe at work. The sight of a police station reminds me of the night I was tortured for four hours non-stop by senior police officers who tried to pin the crime on me,” said Somzi, a Kwaggafontein Police Station officer based in Vlaklaagte.
The sergeant said that on June 15, 2022, five armed men stormed the police station. One of the thugs who entered pretended to be a complainant.
While officers were attending to his complaint, he produced a firearm and signalled four others to enter. They disarmed and robbed on-duty police officers and took their cellphones.
“I was not at the station during the robbery. That night we posted two bakkies to the field. I was in one of those bakkies responding to a mob justice case. When we returned to the station, my colleague sat down to eat, so I decided to quickly pop in at home to fetch my keys in case nobody was home when we knocked off at 6am the next morning,” Somzi said.
“After returning with the keys, we were once again asked to respond to a complaint. This time it was a hijacked car tracked to our jurisdiction. After securing the car, I wore gloves to avoid contaminating the fingerprints in the stolen vehicle as I drove it back to the station. Before getting back to the station, a colleague informed me that the station had been attacked and our colleagues disarmed,” he said.
The day after the incident, provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Semakaleng Daphney Manamela told journalists Kwaggafontein police station had been attacked at about 10pm on June 15. She said she had “ordered the mobilisation of maximum resources to ensure those behind the attack were immediately brought to book”.
However, according to Somzi, the action taken was to summon Kwaggafontein police station officers to Tweefontein police station, where the torture allegedly took place.
“We were ready to knock off at 6am that Thursday, but our superiors asked how we could go home when guns had been stolen. At around 2pm, more than seven police officers were summoned to Tweefontein. We were told we had to retake our statements on the incident of the previous night.
“I had not given a statement because I was in the field when it happened. To my shock, they called us one by one into a boardroom that quickly turned into an interrogation room with 15 senior officers.
“The senior police officers said I knew something because I had left the police station that night. I told them I had gone to fetch my keys, as I had reported to my colleagues.
“They shouted at me and demanded firearms from me. One of them took off his name tag and rank insignia and instructed me to stand up. He handcuffed me and pushed me back to the chair. They switched off the lights and he sat on my thighs and put a plastic bag over my head. The bag was fastened around my neck, and he covered my mouth with his hand so that I couldn’t breathe,” Somzi said.
He was suffocated for a while before the officers took off his shoes and socks. “They placed electrical wires on my toes and shocked me until I felt like I was losing consciousness. The torture happened from 7pm until around 11pm. When they realised I was telling the truth, they told me to put on my shoes. They drove me back to the police station. Since I was in a lot of pain, I requested colleagues at Kwaggafontein to drive me home.”
On June 17, Somzi went to a doctor to obtain a J88 document detailing his injuries and trauma.
“I went to Tweefontein police station to open an attempted murder charge against the officers who tortured me. Yes, I was afraid to open a case, but at the end of the day it is illegal to torture anyone.
“If I don’t blow the whistle, how many police officers and ordinary citizens will suffer at the hands of the crooked police? Even if they silence me, the world will know the truth. I want justice,” said Somzi.
Provincial police spokesperson Colonel Donald Mdhluli refused to confirm Somzi’s claims that no officer had been arrested since he had opened the case. “Questions should be directed to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) in Mpumalanga for comment,” he said.
Ipid provincial spokesperson Lizzy Suping confirmed they were probing the matter. “We’re investigating allegations of torture against SAPS members.”
Pretoria News