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EIGHT POLICE OFFICERS have been arrested in South Africa on suspicion of murder over the death of a Mozambican taxi driver who was dragged through the streets tied to a police van, prompting an international outcry.
“Eight policemen have been arrested by IPID at Benoni police station,” Moses Dlamini, spokesman for the Independent Police Investigative Directorate, told AFP.
The group will appear in court on Monday. The arrests come just hours after police chief Riah Phiyega announced the eight officers had been disarmed and suspended for “callous and unacceptable behaviour” and the station commander had been removed from his post pending investigation.
Mido Macia
Mozambican taxi driver Mido Macia (27) was filmed being manhandled, handcuffed to the back of a police van and dragged hundreds of metres to the Daveyton police station, east of Johannesburg, on Tuesday.
Just over two hours later he was found dead in custody. A post mortem found he died from head injuries and internal bleeding.
South African President Jacob Zuma on Thursday condemned the killing as “horrific, disturbing and unacceptable”.
Footage of the incident spread quickly online and sent shockwaves through the country, shining a spotlight yet again on the conduct of South Africa’s much maligned police force.
Phiyega insisted the episode was being thoroughly investigated.
“Any one death is one too many,” she said, adding that:
what is in the video is not how the SAPS (South African Police Service) in a democratic South Africa goes about its work.
The footage shows a large crowd of horrified bystanders looking on, some warning police they were being filmed. “Hey! Hey! Why are you hitting him?” one person in the crowd can be heard shouting in Zulu.
Macia, lying on his back, can be seen kicking and struggling to avoid the tarmac.
In an interview with AFP, Phiyega, who has been in the job for less than a year, rejected suggestions that the police force under her watch was lurching from crisis to crisis.
She insisted the force was regionally respected, but that abuses were bound to happen with over 200,000 officers in its ranks. “It’s a monstrous organisation, so to have these types of incidents, it’s not untoward, you will always have them,” she said.
As and when they happen, we shall decisively and unequivocally, without doubt, deal with those.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights strongly condemned the incident. “This is clearly an absolutely dreadful case,” OHCHR spokesman Rupert Colville told reporters in Geneva.
“I think perhaps encouraging signs are there have been strong statements by the president of South Africa,” he said.
The IPID received 720 new cases for investigation of suspicious deaths in custody or in other policing contexts from April 2011 to March 2012, according to rights group Amnesty International.
Macia’s death has also prompted a diplomatic incident with neighbouring Mozambique, whose government said it was “outraged by what happened”.
Macia had moved to South Africa as 10-year-old boy when his parents travelled to work on the mines, said the Mozambican ambassador to South Africa, Fernando Fazenda, who has appointed a lawyer to represent the family.
He came from the town of Macia some 160 kilometres (100 miles) north of the capital Maputo. His wife and son had been on holiday in Mozambique and are returning to South Africa.
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The very worrying thing about this horrific incident is how many more like it happened but were never reported . It’s only because a member of the public had a camera phone and taped it that this incident has gone global . It’s hard to believe that such things occur in the 21st century . It’s horrific to watch and it seems that the government is only taking action because of the international outcry !
Oh Mary you are so right.. A young woman went to report a domestic violence to the police station in her area yesterday and she was raped by some of the police officers! It’s just terrible and I’m sure SA is not the only country that these atrocious acts are committed. I’m sure it happens in other countries too. It’s very sad! :-(
My fears exactly.
where was the taxi regulator when all this was going on !!!!
Some mother’s beautiful and beloved little boy. Spending his last hours on earth tortured, frightened and treated like a piece of rubbish. Disgusting and shocking.
In this incident, modern technology and social media worked positively to highlight this to the world and hopefully bring those responsible to a swift justice.
Bastards
Are there any countries in Africa that are not just disaster zones? Makes happy to be living in Ireland!
Emm…….Emm……ooh, Namibia! Yay I got one!
Yea, 1 in 5 have aids and half live under the poverty line…. sounds sweet!
@ Terry Morgan:
correct – murderous savagery,
Ireland – don’t feel so superior
have you heard of Ballyseedy ??
equally murderous savagery – & no one brought to justice for it..
That is like comparing an ant hill to a mountain.
so you know about Ballyseedy ?
i suppose you could say that what happened in S Africa is an anthill compared to the murderous barbarism of Ballysedy !
Well ballyseedy was 100 years ago and during a bloody civil war. Might compare with something the the Congo but its not really comparable to the brutal torture, in public, and murder, of a man by 8 police officers in a modern, albeit impoverished, democracy. Can’t imagine 8 gardaí doing that on Henry street!
In 2010 an average of two people died in police custody each day. If this was not filmed this man would be just another number. The sad thing is, why does it take media attention for action to be taken on such crimes. Should not all murders/rapes etc not have the same attention.
I’ve heard it said in South Africa there is no respect for human life.
Had to disagree with that sentiment here…
Respect is VERY important there!! That is to be strong and able.
Wtf????????
Crazy every copper involved should be hung
Maybe make those police arrested suffer the same fate… send out a message. Better that than a return to apartheid.
Im afraid South Africa is going to end up worse off than it was with apartheid.
We’d all be blind with that eye for an eye attitude
@michael o’ toole.
Yes no one should ever forget what happened at Ballyseedy..
No one should ever forget who instigated, created, and with all the malice and hatred that could be mustered started the Irish Civil war.
No one should ever forget the coward that shot down General Michael Collins either.
Thankfully this occurred to a man. Otherwise it would be considered violence against women. It’s only a man so it’s just an incident.
There is very little migration control across Africa and a lot of South Africans are very xenophobic. Although this is an awful incident which puts SA in a bad light again, this event simply does not happen if a South African parks on the wrong side of that road…
have your say