'Police watched as my brother died at station'

A Tembisa woman is accusing officers at the local police station of insulting her when she asked them to call an ambulance for her dying brother.

Phatheka Juka said she took her brother Bhungaliwile Juka, 26, who had been stabbed, to the Tembisa South police station at about 4pm on Saturday hoping the police would call an ambulance.

Bhungaliwile was stabbed during a fight in Esselen Park, about 2km from the station.

"I arrived at the client services [centre] and asked the female officer I found there to help me call the ambulance as my brother was dying outside. My clothes were soaked in blood and I told her that it was an emergency.

"She asked me why I did not take him to hospital and I explained to her that the man who assisted me did not have enough petrol to go to the hospital. She told me that they only work with guns and arrest people, so she could not assist me."

Juka said she argued with the officer before she went out to check on her brother who was sitting in the car of a Good Samaritan who had offered to help her.

"I insisted that she [the police officer] help me as she was there to serve the public but she refused. A few minutes later, someone came in and said the ambulance we called earlier before we went to the station had arrived," she said.

Juka said she was followed outside by a male officer who also insulted her.

"After the paramedics declared my brother dead, the male officer started shouting at me. He said under no circumstances should I bring a person like that to the police station.

"I apologised for the mistake I made but he continued insulting me and called me all sorts of names," she said.

Juka said the paramedics left with the attacker in the ambulance as he was also injured. She said police officers then refused to open a case for her.

"They said I must sit there [outside] and wait for the officers who would come in at 6pm. I sat outside in bloodied clothes next to my dead brother who was covered in a silver plastic. It was the most painful two hours of my life," she said.

Juka said she was only assisted by officers who came in to start a 6pm shift.

"The officers were surprised that I was sitting outside without police guard and I was not assisted. They helped me."

Juka said her brother was repeatedly stabbed in the neck.

Before going to the police station, she had asked the Good Samaritan who was passing by to take him to a nearby clinic but it was closed. "We found two ambulances and security guards. The ambulances left the clinic saying they were going to Tembisa Hospital.

"The security guards later advised us to go to the police station where we would get attention. They then called the ambulance that later found us at the station," she said.

Juka's relative Bongiwe Delihlazo, 36, said she believed Bhungaliwile would have survived had he received assistance.

Juka said her brother was a good person who "played rough".

"I watched TV with him and his three-year-old son until late on Friday. I didn't know it would be for the last time. My heart is broken. The officers treated me badly," she said.

ratsatsip@sowetan.co.za