“I didn’t hear him talking. I didn’t hear a cry. I just saw him lying there.”
|||Cape Town - When State witness Siyabulela Njova last saw the man who was allegedly murdered in Hawks custody, he was being dragged away by his leg, leaving behind a trail of blood.
This is what the Western Cape High Court heard on Tuesday in the trial of 13 Hawks policemen.
They face a string of charges relating to events on the night of February 9, 2009.
The State alleges that the officers kidnapped and assaulted Njova and two other men - Sidwell Mkwambi and Rantaoleng - resulting in Mkwambi’s death.
But they have pleaded not guilty to all charges, saying that Mkwambi died because he’d jumped from a moving vehicle.
Njova is the second State witness to take the stand in the trial after Rantaoleng, who testified to having been tortured after being arrested at his home in Mitchells Plain.
Njova also told the court that he’d been tortured at the hands of several of the accused while he was at the provincial Organised Crime Unit offices in Bellville South.
He claimed that he’d been smothered with a piece of “tyre tube”, slapped through the face, kicked in his ribs and threatened by having a firearm pointed at him.
According to Njova’s testimony, he and Mkwambi had been in the building at the same time.
At one point, he’d heard Mkwambi screaming.
Later, he’d caught a glimpse of him in a nearby office. Mkwambi had been lying in a pool of blood on the floor.
“I didn’t hear him talking. I didn’t hear a cry. I just saw him lying there,” said Njova, answering questions posed by prosecutor Alta Collopy.
He said that at another stage, he’d overheard one of the policemen, Tobezi Jam Jam, say to another one of them that they shouldn’t do what they were doing “so much” because it was “illegal”.
Njova claimed to have been tortured further, testifying that he’d been smothered until he’d lost consciousness.
When he’d regained consciousness, he’d been in a bathroom, under a running shower, and Mkwambi had also been in the bathroom.
One of the officers, Nkosikhona Mthembu, had said: “Sidwell (Mkwambi), Sidwell! Hey you, boy, stand up!”
Mwambi hadn’t answered or moved.
Njova then demonstrated to the court - over which Judge Robert Henney is presiding - how Mkwambi, who had been naked, had been on the floor.
He made rapid, gasping sounds to show the noises his friend had been making.
He testified that he then saw Mthembu dragging Mkwambi out of the bathroom by his leg.
Njova said he’d peeped through the entrance of the bathroom and seen blood where Mkwambi had been dragged.
That, he testified, had been the last time he’d seen Mkwambi.
Njova is yet to complete his evidence-in-chief and to be cross-examined by the defence.
The trial continues.
leila.samodien@inl.co.za
Cape Times