The torture case against three police officers which was provisionally withdrawn in April, has been reinstated at the Wynberg Magistrates’ Court on Friday.
The case involves Lieutenant Colonel Delmore Manuel, Constable Jermaine Conradie and Constable Leigh-Ann Maroon, who are accused of torturing Juma Igiraneza during a raid at his workplace in Mowbray on 7 November 2023.
CCTV footage showed police officers repeatedly assaulting Igiraneza, allegedly to get him to provide information on the whereabouts of his boss at the time.
Since 2024 when the accused made their first appearance, the matter has gone through numerous postponements. On their previous appearance on 1 April, the case was provisionally withdrawn due to there being no interpreter available for Igiraneza, and Igiraneza’s absence at court.
For Igiraneza, English is a third language that he struggles with.
On Friday, the matter returned to court, this time with an interpreter. The matter was heard in a courtroom, different from the one the accused had previously appeared in. But one of the three accused, Manuel, was absent due to him being away on a “course”.
Magistrate Sharon Mthimunye postponed the matter to 6 July for Manuel and his lawyer to be present, as well as the legal representative for Conradie who was also absent.
Outside court, Igiraneza sat on one of the benches with his brother and a friend. They did not enter the courtroom during the proceedings.
Before the case started, Conradie and Maroon, who had been sitting a few feet away from Igiraneza, moved to sit on a bench right opposite him.
Visibly nervous, Igiraneza later told GroundUp that he didn’t understand why the two officers came to sit opposite him. “I was feeling a bit scared especially of the man [Conradie] because he beat me too much that day,” Igiraneza said.
He said he was informed last Thursday that he had to be in court and had made arrangements to get a bus ticket from the Eastern Cape with the help of his brother.
“It is really difficult having to travel back and forth all the time for the case because it is costly, but I don’t have a choice,” he said.
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