Killed in Swaziland for wearing T-shirt

By Peter Kenworthy, Communications- and Project Assistant

According to Africa Contact’s sources in Swaziland, Pudemo-member Sipho Jele has died in police custody. Sipho Jele was arrested in Manzini on May-day, allegedly for having worn a Pudemo t-shirt. The police went on to ransack his home in search of his Pudemo membership card, after which he was taken into custody. The following day, police told Sipho’s grandmother that he had committed suicide, after which they forced Sipho’s family to bury him – probably to avoid a potentially revealing autopsy.

According to a Pudemo representative that Africa Contact has been in contact with, the explanation given by police to his death is manifestly untrue: “We know this is incorrect”, he categorically stated.

This occurrence is unfortunately only one of many examples of the imaginative explanations for deaths in custody in Swaziland, as well as the generally brutal behaviour of the regime and its police and security forces. According to Africa Contact’s sources in Swaziland, the police conduct is comparable in brutality to that of the apartheid regimes police forces.

Sipho Jele was a former employee at Swaziland’s only pulp mill and was currently studying to become an engineer, and he had previously been charged with high treason in a high-profile trial in 2006, but was fully acquitted. Sipho was 37 years old.

Pudemo-medlem myrdet af politiet i Swaziland

Ifølge Afrika Kontakts kilder i Swaziland, er Pudemo-medlemmet Sipho Jele død i politiets varetægt. Sipho Jele var blevet arresteret den 1 maj i Manzini, angiveligt for at have båret en Pudemo t-shirt. Politiet ransagede derefter hans hjem for at lede efter hans Pudemo-medlemskort, hvorefter han blevet taget i forvaring. Dagen efter fortalte politiet Siphos bedstemor, at han havde begået selvmord, hvorefter de pressede Siphos familie til at begrave ham den følgende dag – sandsynligvis for at undgå en obduktion.

Ifølge en repræsentant fra Pudemo som Afrika Kontakt har været i kontakt med, er denne forklaring på hans død absolut usand; ”Vi ved, at det ikke passer”, siger han således.

Denne hændelse er desværre blot er en blandt mange eksempler på regimet og politiet i Swazilands fantasifulde forklaringer på dødsfald i politiets varetægt, og gennemgående brutale adfærd, og ifølge Afrika Kontakts kilder i Swaziland, er politiets handlinger i denne og andre tilsvarende sager, at sidestille med lignende handlinger begået af apartheid-regimets politistyrker.

Sipho Jele, der tidligere havde arbejdet på Swazilands eneste papirmassefabrik, og var i færd med at læse til ingeniør, var tidligere anklaget for forræderi i en højtprofileret retssag i 2006, men blev, sammen med sine medanklagede, frikendt. Han blev 37 år gammel.