Tshwarelo Hunter Mogakane
Pretoria - An SAPS sergeant in Mpumalanga, who pressed attempted murder charges after accusing his superiors of torturing him for four hours, says he fears for his life each time he finds out that another police officer has been killed.
Yesterday, Sergeant Andries Zongezile Somzi spoke to the Pretoria News following the murder of Warrant Officer Siyaphi Jan Msiza, who was stabbed to death in KwaMhlanga on Tuesday night.
Somzi said he was having sleepless nights due to the number of police murders being reported across the country, but specifically in Mpumalanga. “I'm a police officer and I keep on hearing about our colleagues becoming statistics of anonymous attacks.
“In June, I opened a case of attempted murder against senior police officers who are still walking around without being charged,” said Somzi.
Somzi said there had been no tangible movement on the case he opened four months ago, which was immediately taken over by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid).
“I am scared whenever I hear a police officer has been killed. Some of their murders remain unsolved and you wonder if they were not targeted for something related to their profession. There are good officers and bad officers, but speaking out feels unsafe," he said.
Somzi opened the case of attempted murder case at the Tweefontein Police Station.
He accused his police seniors, including members of the Hawks unit, of suffocating him with a plastic bag and using an electrical device to shock him into confessing to a crime he did not commit.
Somzi said he was tortured in front of more than 10 police officers after being falsely accused of having had a hand in an armed robbery at Kwaggafontein Police Station on June 15.
On the night of the incident, five armed men stormed the station after one of them initially pretended to be a complainant.
While police officers were attending to his complaint, he produced a firearm and alerted four other robbers to enter the station. They disarmed and robbed on-duty police officers of firearms and cellphones.
A day after the incident, provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Semakaleng Daphney Manamela told journalists that she had “ordered the mobilisation of maximum resources to ensure that those who are behind the attack are immediately brought to book“.
According to Somzi, the action taken was to summon Kwaggafontein officers to Tweefontein, where the torture allegedly took place.
"I may be living in fear, but I will not stop until justice has been served," said Somzi.
When asked if any suspects had been questioned or arrested in relation to the attempted murder charge, Ipid provincial spokesperson Lizzy Suping said the case was still under investigation.
Pretoria News