The beating and torture of three men in Hawks custody never happened - at least not in the presence of the testifying officer.
|||Cape Town - The beating and torture of three men in Hawks’ custody never happened - at least, according to him, not in the presence of an officer who took the witness stand on Wednesday.
George Ainslie testified in the Western Cape High Court that while the men had been taken into custody, he did not know anything about them having been assaulted.
He is one of 13 Hawks policemen accused of murdering a New Crossroads man and assaulting two others.
Sidwell Mkwambi, 24, was arrested along with his friend Siyabulela Njova on February 9, 2009, and taken to the Hawks’ offices in Bellville South.
This was in connection with a Hawks investigation into an attack on a couple of their members a few weeks earlier.
The State alleges that officers beat and tortured Mkwambi, Njova and another man, Mthuthuzeli Rantaoleng, and that Mkwambi died because of his injuries.
But the 13 policemen deny assaulting the three men.
According to their version, Mkwambi was not murdered - he jumped out of a moving vehicle.
On Thursday, defence counsel Stanley O’Brien put several questions to Ainslie over certain allegations that had been made: that Ainslie had “threatened to rape” Rantaoleng’s wife and daughter, that he drank beers in the wee hours on the night of the incident, used a chain to threaten the men, kicked in the door to Njova’s home and kicked Mkwambi while he was on the floor.
Ainslie denied all the allegations.
He said that while he might have greeted Rantaoleng, he had not had any conversations with him.
He had never, he also told the court, been inside Njova’s house so he could not have kicked in a door there.
Ainslie testified that he was in the same office as Njova while two of his colleagues questioned him.
They were speaking in Xhosa, he said, and another colleague interpreted the conversation.
“The information that came back to me is that he’s not speaking the truth, that we’re lying, (and) that he denies everything,” said Ainslie.
He said that while he could not be sure, the conversation seemed “aggressive” because they were talking loudly.
When O’Brien asked him whether he had seen Njova injured, he responded that he had not noticed anything.
Had injuries been evident, he would have seen something, he said.
He testified that no assault of the three men had taken place.
When Judge Robert Henney asked him about Njova and Rantaoleng’s allegations that they had been smothered with pieces of plastic, he said that this “never took place in my presence”.
Ainslie is yet to be cross-examined.
His co-accused are Tobezi Jam Jam, Norton Ndabambi, Banele Mgogodlo, Ludwe Mzana, Nkosikhona Mthembu, Zamikaya Mbali, Reginald Mtshali, Wayne Louw, Edmunt Sombo, Riaan Kielblock, Mphathi Velani and Siseko Mtotywa.
They have all pleaded not guilty.
The trial continues.
leila.samodien@inl.co.za
Cape Times