Police raid Jozi residents

s accuse them of conducting midnight raids, beatings and abusing women – especially illegal immigrants.
According to Nazeem Antonio, a refugee from Mozambique, the police raided a flat in Yeoville in the middle of the might and started beating up tenants.
Antonio was severely beaten and admitted to the East Rand hospital. He told CAJ News he was “kicked in the face while asleep and police would not give him a chance to ask any questions.” Antonio claimed that his asylum papers were torn up by the police who also accused him of “faking the asylum permit papers section 22.”
Antonio alleged that some people in the area lost goods worth thousands of Rands during the police raids.
Several Yeoville residents also accuse the police of taking bribes, mostly from illegal immigrants for them to avoid deportation. Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula admitted recently that the police frequently mistreat refugees and asylum seekers.
Some migrants claimed they are forced to pay bribes to officers to avoid being taken to the Lindela Repatriation Centre. According to immigration official Mantshele Tau, about 300,000 Zimbabweans have been deported in recent years. A Zimbabwean, Judy Mutasa, alleged that many of her friends staying in Johannesburg had become “unofficial wives” for police officers here (police spokesperson Ronnie Naidoo could not confirm the allegation).
The Minister of safety and security, Charles Nqakula, recently told journalists in Pretoria that most violent crime in the County were being perpetrated by Zimbabweans and Mozambicans. – CAJ News