Sixteen officers arrested for April 2020 death of Ishmael Gama during Covid-19 ops

The Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) have arrested 16 police officers and three security officers in connection with the murder of Ishmael Gama at Lenasia police station on April 1 2020.

Gama died while in police custody during the first week of Covid-19 lockdown. 

“It is alleged that the deceased and three other civilians were arrested for violating the Covid-19 Disaster Management Act [regulations] and assaulted by the Soweto visible policing officers and VSS security guards,” Ipid spokesperson Lizzy Suping said.

The trio were detained at the Lenasia police station and during the hourly visits to the cells, Gama — who was still alive at the time — complained of stomach pains.

“An ambulance was called, the paramedics declared the one civilian dead on April 1 2020 at about 10.38pm,” Suping said.

A murder case was opened.

It was one of 10 cases of deaths allegedly as a result of police action related to Covid-19 operations the Ipid reported on to parliament in May 2020. These deaths occurred between March 26 2020 and May 5 2020.

In the report to parliament, Ipid said its investigator noted Gama had suffered serious injuries.

Suping said eight officers, including the three security officials, were arrested on July 12 while the other eight suspects were detained on July 14.

“The 16 law enforcement officers appeared at the Protea magistrate’s court on July 13 and 15 respectively and were released on bail.”

Bail for the police officers was set at R2,000 each, while the security officials were released on R1,000 bail each. The bail conditions prohibit the officers from contacting the victims or other witnesses.

TimesLIVE