Trouble from the past hasn't been dealt with - Graca Machel

"Mama Graca" said the "level of anger and aggression in South Africans is far deeper than we realised."

Friends, family and supporters of a Mozambican man who died in custody after being dragged behind a South African police van held a memorial service for him on Wednesday.

Around a thousand mourners gathered at the sports stadium in Daveyton, the town east of Johannesburg where 27-year-old Mido Macia died on Tuesday last week.

The noisy remembrance was tinged with anger, the singing intermixed with shouts while the crowd, a mix of Mozambicans, South Africans and other immigrants, angrily booed police representatives out of the stadium.

Footage showed the Mozambican taxi driver being manhandled, handcuffed to the back of a police van and dragged hundreds of metres to a local police station.

Just over two hours later he was found dead in his cell.

A post-mortem found he died from head injuries and internal bleeding.

The bail hearing for the eight police officers charged with his murder will start Friday.

Mourners at the memorial sang and held posters of Macia while several people carried a woman by her arms and legs, imitating the now infamous images of his abuse.

One man held a poster with the words "Police stop promoting xenophobia. Justice must take its course".

At one point the crowd broke out singing "Umshimi wami" (Bring me my machine gun), a Zulu struggle song known to the many Mozambicans who have lived as migrant workers in South Africa.

"I'm here because they took away my brother," said Mandla Ncube, a 29-year-old immigrant from neighbouring Zimbabwe.

"Police tell themselves they've got power," he told AFP. "They treat us badly," he added, bemoaning violence against foreigners in Africa's largest economy.

The crowd echoed his feeling, loudly cheering a local schoolgirl who slammed police violence in a poem.

"This isn't the first time they killed," she said.

Several members of Macia's family and friends who had travelled from Mozambique sat with officials on the pitch of the football field. His father, Jossefa, was expected later.

One of Macia's neighbours said his death had "devastated" his father.

"As family and friends we just want justice," Gugu Gumede, 25, told AFP.

Thinking of her friend, Gumede would miss "the jokes we used to have, his smile," she said in a soft voice.

Representatives of South Africa's ruling ANC party, Mozambique's ambassador and members of its ruling party Frelimo also attended the memorial, as did Nelson Mandela's wife, Graca Machel, who was cheered by the crowd.

Mozambicans revere Machel as widow of their liberation hero and first president Samora Machel.

"Mama Graca" said the "level of anger and aggression in South Africans is far deeper than we realised."

"It's an expression of trouble from the past that hasn't been dealt with," Machel told journalists.

"We have big trouble that we must deal with and we must deal with it now," she said.

South Africa had to find a way to heal "a society that is bleeding and breathing in pain," she added.

Local minibus taxi associations also sent delegations.

News of Macia's death spread quickly online and sent shockwaves throughout the country, shining a spotlight yet again on the conduct of South Africa's much maligned police force.

South African authorities pledged to help repatriate his body to Mozambique.

He will be buried outside the capital Maputo on Saturday.