Colonel Delmore Manuel is one of three officers facing a charge of torture at the Wynberg Regional Court on Wednesday. They are accused of assaulting Juma Igiranieza, a barber, in Mowbray on 7 November 2023. The incident was caught on CCTV.
- On 7 November 2023 three police officers were filmed on CCTV assaulting a barber at his workplace.
- The three, Colonel Delmore Manuel, Constable Jermaine Conradie, and Constable Leigh-Ann Maroon, appeared in Wynberg Regional Court on Wednesday. Their case was once again postponed.
- At least one of the officers remains on duty. SAPS has refused to disclose what if any disciplinary action has been taken against the officers.
- A few weeks after the assault took place former Minister of Police Bheki Cele stated: “I am told that IPID [the institution that oversees the police] is working on this particular case and many others and will make recommendations. We will try to move fast.”
Lawyers representing three police officers facing torture charges have asked for the matter to be postponed to allow them to prepare “further applications”.
The trio made a brief appearance at the Wynberg Regional Court on Wednesday. Colonel Delmore Manuel, Constable Jermaine Conradie, and Constable Leigh-Ann Maroon are accused of assaulting Juma Igiranieza, a barber, at his workplace, Perfect Touch Boutique and Salon, in Mowbray on 7 November 2023.
GroundUp published CCTV footage on 10 November showing several officers, one in plain clothes, assaulting Igiranieza. In the footage, at least two officers participated directly in the assault, while other police officers appeared unconcerned. Igiranieza was pummelled, struck repeatedly with a wooden object, and smothered with plastic.
This is an abbreviated version of the video. Download the full 11 minute video. Warning: both videos depict violence and most people will find it distressing.
Manuel, Conradie and Maroon were arrested on 22 April, and are currently out on R2,000 bail.
Moments before Magistrate Karel Meyer took his seat in the courtroom on Wednesday, Manuel, Conradie and Maroon quickly made their way into the dock. This was unusual because accused are usually expected to be in the dock when the magistrate or judge arrives.
Each attorney asked Meyer for the case to be postponed, but it is not clear what they intend to submit to the court.
Meyer granted the postponement.
Outside court, photographer David Harrison had been waiting to photograph the accused in a public space. He said that Manuel, who was driving a marked SAPS van, had attempted to evade being photographed by nearly knocking him out of the way.
Maroon, who was with an unknown relative, also tried to cover her face using a buff around her face while walking to a private car.
Conradie was not seen leaving the court.
In GroundUp’s previous report, we asked SAPS whether the officers were still on active duty, to which SAPS spokesperson Frederick Van Wyk merely said that it was an internal matter and that “due process regarding disciplinary actions are under way”.
Van Wyk further said SAPS would not comment further on the matter.
Because Manuel was seen leaving the court in a SAPS vehicle and was still carrying his service holster, it can be assumed that he is still on active duty despite facing these charges.
At a meeting of the South African National Editors Forum a few weeks after the incident Minister of Police Bheki Cele stated: “I am told that IPID is working on this particular case and many others and will make recommendations. We will try to move fast.”
The case will return to court on 14 October.
© 2024 GroundUp. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and GroundUp, and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.
We put an invisible pixel in the article so that we can count traffic to republishers. All analytics tools are solely on our servers. We do not give our logs to any third party. Logs are deleted after two weeks. We do not use any IP address identifying information except to count regional traffic. We are solely interested in counting hits, not tracking users. If you republish, please do not delete the invisible pixel.
mad viral
Bobotie – a spicy mince dish [buh-boor-tee] This delicious dish originated in Malay cooking and is made with spicy minced meat, baked in the oven with an egg custard topping. It is usually served with yellow rice and raisins.
Spit Turanga
Braai – a barbecue [brr-rye] Also known as a barbecue where steak, lamb chops and of course ‘boerewors’ is cooked on a grid over wood and flames. Add some salads, rolls and ‘melktert’ for dessert and you are set for a traditional South African braai.