The sun rises over the capital of South Africa, Pretoria.
"The present report also focuses on grave abuses of the basic human rights of many South Africans - but abuses which took place outside South Africa and for which the ANC, not the South African Government, was directly responsible. Based on first-hand research among surviving victims of such abuse, it documents a long-standing pattern of torture, ill-treatment and execution of prisoners by the ANC's security department. It shows too that this pattern of gross abuse was allowed to go unchecked for many years, not only by the ANC's leadership in exile but also by the governments of the African front-line states who allowed the ANC to set up bases, and prisons, on their territory. Such governments were at best accessories to the abuses by the ANC; at other times they actively assisted those within the ANC responsible for the grave human rights abuses which occurred."Amnesty International
* Torture exists and is real in South Africa today. * Torture is a human rights violation and is prohibited in the Bill of Rights of the South African Constitution * Torture is now a recognized crime in South Africa and perpetrators of this specific crime can be charged, tried and prosecuted under the Prevention and Combating of Torture of Persons Act 13 of 2013 (“The Anti-torture Act”). * South Africa enacted anti-torture legislation on 25 July 2013 almost 15 years after ratifying the United Nations Convention against Torture (CAT) – South Africa is yet to ratify the Optional Protocol on the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) * In Africa, 13 out of 54 countries have enacted anti-torture legislation. * Article 5 of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights prohibits torture and the Robben Island Guidelines provides a guide on preventing torture in Africa * In South Africa torture happens in police cells, correctional services, other places of detention (or where freedom of movement is restricted), on the streets and in some cases in people’s private spaces. * Victims of torture in the post-apartheid South Africa include arrested persons, criminal sus- pects, non-South African nationals and sex workers amongst others. * The Anti-torture Act applies to state agents – members of the police, prison warders, nurses, teachers and other officials responsible for detained persons or other people acting with the consent and authorization of the State. Amnesty International
A feature of the Apartheid era in South Africa was white-led police forces that terrorized Blacks with their brutal interrogation techniques. A tactic that involved plastic bags placed over a suspect's head, suffocating them while being questioned; a terrifying object lesson in a police state with no accountability, no link to human rights, no conscience alerting the abuser to the fact that in torturing a prisoner they were themselves criminals and those they suspected of criminality their victims whom they expected to incriminate themselves out of pure fear to put a stop to the unbearable atrocity they were suffering through.
A White-on-Black crime. With the obliteration of apartheid, South Africa adopted a constitution outlawing such methods of interrogation involving torture. South Africa became a signatory to international treaties banning torture. The country was committed to the prevention of torture under any circumstances. Latterly, an analysis of government data has been undertaken by investigative journalists fully three decades since apartheid, only to discover that police in South Africa are still making use of the same suffocation tactic, called tubing.
Poster design by Viewfinder, with an archival photo of a tubing
demonstration used with permission of the Wits Law Clinic. (Image:
Supplied)
"They take two plastic bags – a Shoprite bag and a Pick n Pay bag –you
know, those thick plastic bags."
"Then they put water inside and put it over your
head. The water comes into your nose and your mouth."
"As soon as you
think to breathe in again, the plastic bag comes right to your nose. You
can't do nothing, nothing!"
"You can't even scream. You can scream as
hard as you can, but no one can hear you."
"Before they beat you, they throw water over you, because they know
it will be more painful. They make you take your clothes off. They leave
you with only your shirt.
"They take some sticks from the tree. Then they take the cable ties –
those long ones: the black ones or the blue ones. They beat you over
the head and here by your neck," he says, pointing to his larynx. "Then
they make you push your chest out and they beat you on the chest."
"They beat the hell out of me –
like I'm not a man, you know? Like I'm a piece of paper. The way they
beat me, I told myself: 'God, I'm dying today.'"
Mail&Guardian -- Africa's better future -- Brandon, South Africa
An average of three people weekly from 2012 to 2023, filed complaints that the police had tubed them, according to Viewfinder, a South African journalism nonprofit. The liberation of Black South Africans led by freedom fighters gave way to a government that somehow finds it expedient to oversee a police force specializing in the very same torture techniques as those they were liberated from. Tubing: pulling a plastic bag over a prisoner's head, while fastening it securely around the neck. A technique that practising officers are not held accountable for.
"I'm really shocked because it brings back very, very, very bad memories."
"The leadership of the A.N.C., when they came to power in 1994 made it clear: No soul should be subjected to that."
Khulu Mbatha, African National Congress liberation party
The South African Independent Police Investigative Directorate (a government watchdog) identified some 1,700 tubing complaints over an eleven-year period. In one of those instances police dismissed an officer, later reinstated. In another six instances, officers were convicted in court. A confidential United Nations report dated 2023, warned commanders in the South African Police Service, along with top government officials about the use of torture. There was no response from government -- as is generally required by a signatory of a U.N. anti-torture protocol.
The police service "regards any allegations of torture as a serious misconduct", with measures to prevent it, according to Colonel Athlenda Mathe, a police service spokeswoman. Infamously, South Africa has a well-earned reputation as being among the world's highest countries suffering incidents of murder; its brazen crime rate earns it both internal and external criticism of its police response. Aggressive quotas for arrests and weapons seizures were established by the police establishment, ostensibly to address the critical issue of crime in South African society.
Some commanders ignore allegations of torture, under pressure to meet the quota targets, according to a former senior police official fired four years earlier for having publicly criticized the national police commissioner. "It's easy for criminals to tell lies about police officers", stated the general secretary of the South African Policing Union, dismissing claims of torture as overblown rhetoric.
A law criminalizing torture was passed by Parliament in 2013, with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Written guidance has been issued to officers in the police department, outlining the law. The training manual representing the police department includes techniques of interrogation reflecting global best prices. Yet there remain some commanders who believe that torture produces results, despite that experts are in agreement that anything gleaned through torture tends to be unreliable simply because victims tend to confess falsely while under physical duress.
"Even though Mandela was not the president, he was still controlling. Right now, people are scared of what is going to happen because Mandela was a father figure. These guys -- Zuma and the others -- they're not like him. We were just waiting for Mandela to die and now we don't know what is going to happen because people don't trust Zuma." Tichaona Mutero, 30, Cape Town
"Ever since Nelson Mandela left office everything went wrong. If everyone was on Mandela's wavelength, South Africa would be a better place. I feel like our political leaders are misleading us. All we hear is of them hanging out in luxury hotels. "Those in power now don't want to pursue the dream Mandela had. They drive past in their Mercedes and BMWs all the time." Kenosi Dlamini, 18, Cape Town
"Life was harsh in exile. You gave up a lot. No longer -- joining the ANC is the gateway to opportunity and wealth. You go there to get rich, to get a top job. You really are a fool if you don't join." Allister Sparks, former editor, Rand Daily Mail
"Yes, we were oppressed by white people; yes, it happened; yes, it hurt. But let us forgive each other so that we can move on fully and contribute fully to the South Africa we want to see in the future." Nokuthula Magubane, 18, South African born-free [after Apartheid]
South Africa, though thought of as a success and a rising economic power, now part of the BRICS group of emerging national economies -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- has a fairly wobbly economy. There are those who argue that Mr. Mandela's vision for South Africa was betrayed by those who succeeded him.
When in power, the Mandela government courted foreign investors, slashed its spending, and began a long period of growth. That economic stability is coming under attack with a high and yet growing unemployment and continuing economic inequality. The jobless rate stands at 24.7%; average black household earnings remain a sixth of those of their white counterparts. One in five South Africans have no formal housing, 2.3 million households have no toilets.
"We still have racial unemployment, racial poverty and racial inequality", said Sidumo Dlamini, president of the 2.2-million-member Congress of South African Trade Unions, a member of the ruling alliance. "Our country is still in white hands." Does that statement auger well for continued colour-blind cooperation?
The state's anti-corruption body accuses a cabinet minister of "reckless dealings with state money and services, resulting in fruitless and wasteful expenditure."
New details emerged only a week ago about President Jacob Zuma's flagrant waste of public funds to rebuild his home at Nkandia in Kwa-Zulu Natal province. He insisted that state funds were used for essential security measures only, as required by his position as president. A swimming pool, an amphitheatre, housing for relatives, a cattle kraal and a chicken coop were all required security measures for the president's personal home.
In 2007, Jacob Zuma assumed control of the ruling African National Congress from Thabo Mbeki whose own leadership in the wake of Nelson Mandela's decision not to run for politics again was not a spectacular success. Under Mr. Mbeki crime soared, rapes were endemic, corruption had a field day, anti AIDs measures were ignored and ignorance ruled supreme. In that regard, nothing has changed under President Zuma.
Weeks after prosecutors dropped charges against Mr. Zuma for taking bribes from arms dealers he became president of South Africa, in 2009. In 2006 he had been acquitted of rape charges. Despite that he had most certainly raped a trusting young woman, a family friend who was afflicted with HIV. All of which left South Africa in capable hands, hands whose fidelity to corruption, nepotism and personal enrichment were skilled indeed.
"We need to practise more what he [Nelson Mandela] taught us. There are day-to-day squabbles and chronic problems, and instead of coming together to fix them, we are moving further apart", complained 22-year-old Faraz Laher. "That unity between races here, it's going. Perhaps now, with Madiba's passing, we will remember how important it is; maybe he can unite us again", said 25-year-old David Van Schalkwyk, optimistically.
Many historical analysts argue that Mr. Mandela's initiative for reconciliation had a cost: socio-economic disparities produced by apartheid have never been addressed fully. The ANC under Mr. Mandela's presidential mandate abandoned policies for nationalizing industries and redistributing wealth.
"You can argue this was a smart, judicious, pragmatic thing to do. I think, myself, you could as easily say it was a sellout. This is a hard call. The ANC ditched the people, and they made a separate peace with capitalism, and the society is unequal and full of discontent because of it", said John Saul, professor emeritus of political science, York University.
"Without more effective and sustained job creation, and soon, a mismatch between these expectations and the capacity of the economy to absorb young people is inevitable, and will have consequences." Reconciliation Barometer; yearly gauge of public opinion
This represents a general opinion site for its author. It also offers a space for the author to record her experiences and perceptions,both personal and public. This is rendered obvious by the content contained in the blog, but the space is here inviting me to write. And so I do.
