ICD probes police brutality report

2011-05-03 14:14

Johannesburg - The Independent Complaints Directorate is looking into a Daily Sun report on Tuesday that two teenage girls and their aunt were assaulted for five hours by police in Mpumalanga in February.

"I've contacted our provincial office," ICD spokesperson Moses Dlamini said on Tuesday morning.

He was still waiting for more information.

"We don't have anything concrete yet," said Dlamini.

The Daily Sun reported that police officers kicked and punched the two teenage girls and their aunt.

This resulted in one of the teenagers, who is 16-years-old, suffering a collapsed lung. She was now dependent on an oxygen tank to breathe, said the newspaper.

The aunt, Tina Vungande, 30, told the Daily Sun: "The cops forced their way into my house at Matsulu, near Mbombela in Mpumalanga and said they had come to search but wouldn't tell me what they were looking for.

"They turned the house upside down and when I asked if they had found what they were looking for, they called me a whore and began beating me up.

"That was when Cassandra and her 13-year-old sister Zinhle walked in and asked why they were beating me. Then the cops began beating her as well.

"They hurled all three of us into a police van and took us to the police station where the beating continued."

The three were later released by the police.

She said most of their clothes and cash were stolen by the police officers.

Mpumalanga police spokesperson Leonard Hlathi confirmed to the Daily Sun that Vungande had laid charges against the police.

- SAPA