Man tortured by police for fun
Patricia Edwin | Friday September 19, 2014 16:22
Mmegi met with Ndlovu at Area W clinic where he had gone to seek medical attention following an assault by police officers at Central Police Station. He said the police suspected him of having stolen his friend’s cellphone last Saturday evening at a club in the Central Business District (CBD). Ndlovu said after he was detained a plain-clothes cop brandishing a gun, who he only remembered as Daniel, tortured and threatened to kill him. Ndlovu said the man brutally beat him with a stout iron rod and choked him with it until he passed out.
This publication met Ndlovu at Area W Clinic yesterday where he had gone to seek medical help after the said incident. When the reporters arrived Ndlovu, came out walking with the aid of a homemade cane as he said he could not walk properly. After taking a seat on a bench outside the clinic, Ndlovu began to relate his ordeal.
He said that on Saturday night he was at the Francistown club called Lizard Entertainment in the CBD when he saw a friend that he used to work with and approached him. “I went up to him and we exchanged greetings with me jokingly saying he was not returning my phone calls and that he did not fulfill his promise to help me find a job,” he said. Ndlovu said that when he was still there some men that he knew from Monarch came over and started chatting him up.
“When they left, the man that I was with suddenly said he could not find his cellphone. We both suspected the men who had come over to talk to me might have been responsible for its disappearance. “I told him that I knew those guys as they were from Monarch where I resided. So he said that I should help him to find them so he can get his phone back,” he said.
As they were talking they spotted some police officers outside the club, and it struck them that they should approach them (the officers). The officers took the two men to the Central Police charge office where his ordeal would begin.
“At the police station we explained what happened and I told them that I was trying to help my friend find his phone. “The police would not have it, saying I was with the culprits who stole the phone and ordered that I be detained,” said Ndlovu. He said that he had to spend the night in a cell and little did he know that in the morning he would come near to the grave. “On Sunday morning a policeman who was not wearing a uniform came into the cell and asked me where the phone.
“I repeated to him that I did not know its whereabouts as I was not with the thieves, who we suspected were responsible for its disappearance. “I told this officer that I was merely trying to help out a friend,” he said. He said that he told them about a man that he knew at Area S who might know where the suspected thieves stay. “The man at Area S denied knowing, but he told the police that one of the thieves was my neighbour which was not true. “That was when we got back into the police vehicle and drove back to the police station with Daniel spewing expletives like ma**te a ga rraago (your father’s testicles- a serious insult in Botswana).
“The man also told me that I should know that he kills people and he was going to kill me unless I brought out the phone,” added Ndlovu. He said that when they got to the station, Daniel and two special constables took him to an office upstairs where Daniel ordered one of the constables to bring his ‘sebolai same’ (my killing equipment), which turned out to be the metal rod. “He started hitting me on the knees with the rod. Then he walked behind me and put the rod on my neck and started pulling. It choked me until I fainted,” he said. He said that Daniel started asking again where the phone was and he told him that he did not know.
Once again he (Daniel) would hit him on the knees with the rod. He would also hit him on the legs and alternatively choke him with the rod. “I fainted about four times and my clothes were now full of blood and when I could not take it anymore, I lied and said that I can show them where the suspected thieves stayed. “When we got to Monarch, I pointed at any yard and we went in and the man said he knew the names we were saying, but he did not know where they stayed.
“When we left that home I was now more scared than ever. But as we were driving around Monarch., I spotted the guys. “I told Daniel that those were the people they were looking for. Our driver turned towards them while Daniel pointed a gun towards them to stop them,” said Ndlovu at length. He said that the men readily admitted to being the ones who stole the phone and led the police to where they sold it.
“The woman who had bought the phone brought it out and the suspected thieves refunded the lady. “Back at the police station they tried to tell the police that I was not with them when they stole the phone, but police said they can tell that to the court on Monday. “The owner of the phone identified the it,” he said.
He said they were put back in a cell where he could not walk so the other prisoners were lifting him wherever he had to go. He said it was only later that he screamed for help inside the cell, fearing he might pass out and even end up dead that he was taken to Jubilee Clinic.
The nurse at the clinic diagnosed high temperature which was also rising and gave him medication before referring him to Area W clinic where a doctor sent him for X-rays at Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital (NRH).
“But then, the police later the police refused to take me back to Area W to deliver the X-Ray results back to the doctor who ordered it. “On Monday morning we were all taken to Donga Customary court where the other suspects explained to the police who came on the Monday shift that I was not with them when they stole the phone. “Later the police dumped me in front of Area W clinic. I had to drag myself into the clinic. Still on Monday morning, upon his release, he approached some police officers to register his displeasure at the torture he was subjected to.He said the officer he was narrating his ordeal to simply told him: “Do not worry. We will rebuke him so he never does that again”. Attempts to speak to the station commander proved futile as he was not available. He was said to be in meetings and his mobile phone was off air.