South Africa: Another Life Lost in the Hands of the Law Enforcers!

southern africa | crime prison and punishment | non-anarchist press Friday March 06, 2009 15:16 by Radical Youth Network - RYN

Sebokeng police station is a home for gangsters!

Radical Youth Network strongly condemns the killing of Teboho “Diventsha” Tsotetsi by the Sebokeng Community Policing Forum. It is not for the first time the community of Zone 20 in Sebokeng experience attacks from the people believed to be protecting them. Sebokeng Police station has turned to be the home of thugs and gangsters!

In what was expected to a be a community safety patrol turned to be a hunting ground for patrollers to brutally beat and harass community members of Zone 20 in Sebokeng. Teboho, well knows as Diventsha is one of the victims of the ongoing police brutality this act seems far from ending. He was seriously beaten by the patrollers last week Friday and went to the Sebokeng police station to lay a charge against those he identified; he also indicated to the police that the patrollers took his cell phone and wallet. On Saturday afternoon the same group of CPF attacked him repeatedly beating him up accusing him of disrespecting. It is believed that he was attacked again in order to force him to drop the charges, which he refuse to do.

On Wednesday, around 17H30 the same group of men attacked him at his home in front of his parents and stubbed him to death. Last year July another life was lost, Mathafeni Majobe was also killed in a day after a community protest against poor service delivery. He was last seen in the hands of the police and found dead in the morning, a case was open and the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) also took up the matter and promised to deal with the police suspected of Mathefini’s murder. Eight months later, the community and parents of the late Mathafeni are still waiting in vain and clueless about the developments on the case.

Yesterday RYN contacted the Sebokeng police station director Mrs. HP Bischoff concerning the behavior of her patrollers and demanded strong action against those responsible. The Director promised that she will take the matter up. Today the station director explained informed us that a case has been open and the suspect is in police custody and will appear at the Sebokeng magistrate court on Monday 09 March 2009.

The RYN together with the Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF) has organized a community mass meeting in Zone phase one at 17H00 to discuss about the way forward on this horrible act. The community is demanding the CPF to stop patrolling in Zone 20 as they cannot be trusted anymore. RYN believes that people can be able to address the problem around crime and safety without the involvement of these gangsters believed to be protecting us.

For more information please contact – Patrick Patra Sindane @ 073 052 7005