A police officer in Lebombo border post said he was kidnapped by other lawmen and told to cough up a bribe of hundreds of thousands of rands in exchange for his freedom or face severe consequences, and when he refused, he alleges, the violence escalated. Suspended cop Samkeliso Mlotshwa, who was arrested in November last year on a business trip in Mozambique over a notorious kidnapping incident in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), has accused his colleagues, and Interpol associates, of demanding a R200 000 bribe in exchange for his freedom.
When he refused, they arrested and tortured him, according to an affidavit he submitted during his bail hearing at iLembe Magistrate’s Court in KZN before the charges against him were withdrawn.
Mlotshwa was one of three men accused in the high-profile kidnapping and extortion of KZN businessman Zakariyya Desai, from whom a staggering R35-million ransom was allegedly demanded his co-accused were Esmael Maulide Ramos Nangy and Setefane Pereira da Costa Brites.
Mlotshwa’s affidavit, now a public record to be scrutinised before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry into criminality, political interference and corruption in the criminal justice system, alleges that not only was he unlawfully arrested in Mozambique, but that the men in uniform turned his ordeal into a cash-grab and a campaign of violence.
Relating his ordeal in the affidavit, Mlotshwa stated that after his cross-border arrest, he was transferred to Kwadukuza SAPS on November 29 last year.
That’s where things went from bad to grotesque.
“The police then woke me up in the evening and took me to an office upstairs, where they beat me.
“They beat me and said that I am going to write a confession, and I said no, but because of the beatings, I signed some document.”
Mlotshwa’s description of the torture is chilling in its detail.
“These beatings were physical on my body, being beaten and hanged.
“They call it hanging, which is when they put the steel pipe underneath your feet and wrists, where your hands are cuffed. When I moved the weight, all the weight that I was carrying was placed on my arms. Then they were putting an evidence bag (or what appeared to be) with water, choking me while others [were] beating [me].”
Throughout this ordeal, the police allegedly demanded to know, “Where is the man?” – referring to Desai.
“They took me with my face covered into the bush, where they beat me,” Mlotshwa further declared in the affidavit.
The price for his freedom? He said that the officers initially asked for “one million meticais,” which he estimated to be “close to R200 000”.
He claimed that he refused to pay the bribe, insisting he had no such money.
“I said I was going to South Africa, and I do not have such money.”
According to Mlotshwa, the extortion attempts did not end there. He alleged that the officers threatened to detain him as an illegal immigrant when he refused to comply.
Mlotshwa said that after refusing to pay, he was handed over to Hawks police officers at the Lebombo border post.
Mlotshwa’s statement claimed high-level involvement. Instead of a magistrate, protocol was tossed aside, and a confession was arranged before “Colonel Ngobane from the same station because they could not find a magistrate”.
Mlotshwa insists the confession was forced out of him due to “severe duress”.
The state, according to documents attached to Mlotshwa’s bail application, provided only that he and “persons unknown” acted in “common purpose” to commit the crimes. No hard evidence, he claimed, just guilt by association.
Mlotshwa’s legal team pointed to another crucial detail involving the SAPS’ attendance log. It showed, Mlotshwa said, that he was hundreds of kilometres away in Komatipoort on the day of Desai’s kidnapping.
Although the criminal case collapsed in February, Mlotshwa’s tale is now central to an ongoing probe by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) into police leadership in KZN.
The Ipid investigation has already named KZN’s top cop, Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, and multiple senior Hawks and metropolitan police officers in a web of allegations of abduction, torture, arson, perjury, and even illegal extradition.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has ordered a formal commission of inquiry to get to the bottom of the claims.
Ipid spokesperson Lizzy Suping has tried to calm the storm, telling Sunday World that the directorate will “not comment on media enquiries falling within the scope of the commission”.
