Arrested, detained for no reason

Mother tells of her brutal experience of police

Two years after she was released from prison, Selina* still lives with the horror of being detained in a frosty cell with her eight-month-old baby.

Selina was breastfeeding in July 2015 when she was detained with her toddler at the Tembisa police station.

She won a lawsuit against Police Minister Fikile Mbalula for unlawful arrest and detention. The Pretoria Regional Court awarded her R180 000 in damages.

“After I was arrested, the cops instructed my husband to leave my daughter with me because she was breastfeeding. She caught flu then.

“We slept on the floor. I still remember how dirty and cold the floor was despite the police promising to place me in a clean and hygienic cell,” she said.

After her arrest, Selina who hails from Zimbabwe lost her job as a domestic worker.

“It was after work when I was arrested. I was on my way home. The cops asked for my documentation, I gave them my passport and asylum documents ... they said the police stamp on the asylum document had expired,” she said.

“On our way to the police station, the cops demanded that I buy them 10 chickens to stay out of prison.”

Selina said the political and economic situation back home had led her to come to South Africa to seek a better life.

“It is really terrible there [Zimbabwe], especially because I am a member of the opposition party. Only my eldest brother at home works and has his own family to look after, so I had to leave for a better life,” she said.

Selina has a 12-year-old daughter and six siblings back home. She has been living in South Africa for seven years, having arrived in 2010.

*Not her real name to protect her minors.