At least five people linked to Fort Hare University were allegedly kidnapped, violently assaulted and threatened recently, with the latest incident taking place on Sunday after a Federation of Unions in South Africa (Fedusa) executive member was allegedly kidnapped from his East London home and tortured for seven hours.
Details about his violent kidnapping and torture were revealed during an urgent press briefing called by Fedusa in Joburg on Wednesday.
Other Fedusa executives who called the urgent briefing revealed that this latest incident was linked to a police investigation into a number of assassination plots at the university.
However SAPS spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe said that while a lot of great work in terms of arrests and progress into the case has been achieved by the team deployed to investigate the murders, attempted murders and other serious allegations at Fort Hare, no case or formal complaint has been registered against the SAPS members.
Commenting on the statement released by Fedusa on Thursday, Mathe said that every member was fully aware of the prohibition against torture and every member was trained to properly deal with person in their custody and how to conduct an interview in a proper manner.
“We await a formal reporting on the matter in the form of a case or a formal complaint. The SAPS will cooperate in an event that such happens,” Mathe said.
In February, Vice-Chancellor Professor Sakhela Buhlungu brought to light widespread corruption at the institution.
He explained that the incidents of corruption ranged from his signature being forged to attempts to stop cases from being taken to court.
In April, five suspects were arrested and charged with the murder and attempted murder of some of the university’s staff members, including the attempted hit on vice-chancellor Buhlungu and the murder of his bodyguard Mboneli Vesele.
The suspects are expected to return to court on Thursday.
In the early hours of Sunday, the Eastern Cape university was struck with another tragic blow when a member of the institution’s protection unit died in a car crash.
The deceased was expected to give testimony in the upcoming court case this week.
Now, Fedusa has alleged that it was members of the SAPS who were behind the latest string of kidnappings and torture of some of its members.
“We can also confirm at this time that we have been in contact with the Director of Public Prosecutions in charge of investigating the issues at F.H. and have provided him with the evidence that we have accumulated in order to ensure that a proper and professional investigation into this most disturbing event takes place. It is also our intention to make representations to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate to investigate this matter urgently,” Fedusa said.
According to Fedusa, on Sunday at around 7pm, approximately 12 heavily armed people identifying themselves as members of SAPS entered the home of the member, without producing an arrest warrant.
He was allegedly handcuffed, forced into a vehicle, blindfolded and driven to an undisclosed location where he was stripped naked, arms and legs bound behind his back and tortured.
Fedusa said he was beaten, forced into unnatural positions, smothered with a plastic bag “all the time being threatened with dire consequences as a result of the truthful answers he gave which were not to the liking of those torturing him”.
“Our member was forced to endure this physically painful and psychologically terrifying torture over a period of approximately seven hours,” it said.
“During the illegal interrogation/torture, it became apparent that the reason for the actions of the SAPS members was to extract information regarding recent assassination attempts at Fort Hare. Based on the questions asked, it became apparent that it was the SAPS members tasked with investigating this matter that were the perpetrators of this gross human rights abuse.
“After this ordeal, our member was dropped off at home and threatened that if he speaks up, they will come back and he will be murdered,” Fedusa said.
Due to his physical and mental condition at that time, his family had to rush him for emergency medical care in the early hours of the morning.
Fedusa said with the assistance of private security and investigative specialists, they had since managed to identify the SAPS members and collect many “promising” leads from CCTV footage and cellphone video footage of the kidnapping, as well as the exact location where the torture took place.
These and other leads have been handed over to the relevant authorities to investigate.
kailene.pillay@inl.co.za
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