S. African jail-death probe

Press, 21 April 1979, Page 9

S. African jail-death probe

NZPA Johannesburg The South African police have begun an investigation after the death of a black man in police custody last February. The man, Sonnyboy Nhlapo, was arrested in Springs, near Johannesburg, on a marijuana charge and died on February 18. An official post-mortem report at the time said Nhlapo died of asphyxia brought on by an epileptic attack.

But a subsequent examination by a Johannesburg pathologist, Dr John Gluckman, carried out at the Nhlapo family’s request, found several injuries on the dead man, including bruising and a fracture at the base of the skull stem and a marked swelling in the gcitals. Lieutenant-General J. F. Kleinhaus, head of the police criminal investigation division, said he was ordering a probe. But he added: “as far as we are concerned there was no murder.” More than 350 blacks have died in prisons or police detention over the past three years, including about 24 political detainees. The police have described most of the deaths as coming from natural causes or suiIcides.

i The most celebrated politijcal detainee to die was I Steve Biko, whose death in September, 1977, set off an international outcry. Although evidence at his inquest suggested extensive maltreatment by the police, a Magistrate ruled that noone was to blame for the death.