MBOMBELA – The six police officers, including a member of the Hawks who were found guilty of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, has been sentenced.
After four years, warrant officers Thomas Motau (38), Egypt Manzini (48), Harold Mashego (52), Vusimuzi Maphanga (44) and constables Vuma Ngwambe and Given Mahlako, both aged 30, were found guilty of severely assaulting 24-year-old Mr Oupa Eliot Malebe on April 29, 2009.
The court heard that the officials suspected Malebe of being in possession of a cellphone after he was detained for alleged armed robbery.
Malebe was removed from the police holding cells, taken to one of the offices where he was assaulted and then hospitalised under police guard.
“They took me out of the cell and started assaulting me. They hit me with a plank, kicked me and beat me numerous times,” Malebe told the paper. According to him the assault continued for about an hour. “I begged them to take me to hospital, but they used abusive language and threw me into another cell. I couldn’t see and I was bleeding. They never found the phone.”
Malebe was rushed to hospital and had to undergo emergency surgery during which one of his testicles had to be removed. He opened a case against the police, and the independent police investigative directorate (IPID) investigated.
Mahlako, attached to directorate for priority crime investigation (Hawks) in Mbombela, and Manzini, stationed at Lydenburg, were each sentenced to three years in prison. Motau, branch commander of Martenshoop near Lydenburg and Ngwambe also of Lydenburg, were sentenced to two years’ imprisonment while Mashego and Maphanga were fined R20 000 each. Manzini and Maphanga resigned from the police in 2013 and early 2014 respectively.
The provincial commissioner, Lt Gen Thulani Ntobela welcomed the sentences handed down in the Lydenburg Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.
He appealed to members to abide by the prescripts of the law while arresting and detaining suspects. “We are the custodians of the law and we are obligated to protect and serve the citizens of this country. Those of us who choose to go astray will be prosecuted, hence the sentencing of these six members,” said Ntobela.
