Two arrested for speaking Tshivenda

Cyril Sadiki (17) of Maila and Tshifhiwa Ravele (18) of Mapate Village told Mirror that on Sunday, July 4, they were approached by policemen while waiting for a vehicle to take them to Strydpoort farm, about 40km from Polokwane. “They came to us after they heard us speaking in our mother tongue, and asked us if we could speak Afrikaans or Sepedi. When we told them that we can only speak Tshivenda, they forced us to get inside the police van, accusing us of being Zimbabweans.”

Cyril, the son of Capt Sadiki, who is attached to the Thohoyandou SAPS, said “at the police station, I requested them to contact my father at the Thohoyandou SAPS, as he was on duty that day. They told me, however, that the system of calling people doesn’t work and told us to buy our own telephone cards.” He alleges that the inmates took R30 from him in the presence of the policemen.

Tshifhiwa said that the offenders assaulted him “for coming to the police holding cells without money. They grabbed me and put my head inside the toilet and flushed it. They only gave us porridge,” he said. A Grade 8 learner at Denga Ramabulana High School, Cyril said that when the policemen came to count them on Wednesday morning, a Venda-speaking cop asked them where exactly they come from and, after learning that one of the detained boys is the son of Capt Sadiki, he immediately informed Sadiki in Thohoyandou.

Tshifhiwa said that what worries him is that when the policemen released them, they praised each other that they had even detained the son of a captain. While commenting on the ordeal suffered by his son, Capt Sadiki said that it was embarrassing for one to learn that the two young men had been arrested for speaking in their mother tongue in Polokwane. He added that justice must seen to be done.

When asked to confirm if the two young boys had been detained, Sgt Lesiba Ramoshaba acknowledged that the two boys were detained after the police suspected them of being Zimbabweans. “People must understand that this is not how we conduct our job in Polokwane. It is just that the cops on duty wanted to see whether the young boys were familiar with other languages spoken in the province. Fortunately, on Wednesday, we called officials from Home Affairs to come and conduct interviews as another method of getting clarity, and they found out that the young boys were from Venda. We released them on Thursday, July 8,” he said.

He further claimed that they were still going to investigate as to how the two boys came to be arrested.

The communication officer for the Department of Safety, Security and Liaison in Limpopo, Mr Khathu Sadiki, said that “this is totally unfair and this type of injustice needs to be reported. It is unfortunate that the two boys do not know the channels for lodging a complaint. They need to register their complaints with us, the Department of Justice, or with the ICD,” he said.

When asked if his department is going to resume investigating the matter, Sadiki said that they can only investigate it if a complaint has officially been lodged.

“We condemn this kind of practice as a department,” he said.

News - Date: 16 July 2004

Nthambeleni Gabara

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