Police dragging victim buried in Mozambique

Agence France Presse

MATOLA, Mozambique: Large numbers of mourners gathered in Mozambique yesterday to bury a taxi driver who died in police custody in South Africa after officers cuffed him to their van and dragged him through the streets.
Crowds gathered at a cemetery in Matola, a city next to the capital Maputo, where Mido Macia was laid to rest under a sprawling Jacaranda tree.
Family and friends of the 26-year-old taxi driver traveled from neighboring South Africa overnight to pay their final respects. “We are revolted, not just angry. It was torture what happened to him,” a friend of Macia, Xinguinhane Vuma told AFP.
On February 26 Macia was filmed by bystanders being manhandled, handcuffed to the back of a police van and dragged hundreds of meters in Daveyton, east of Johannesburg.
He was found dead in his cell two hours later, having suffered severe head and internal injuries.
“Our feeling is very deep. We hope he rests in peace,” Vuma said at the graveside.
The footage spread quickly online and sent shock waves across the world, shining a spotlight yet again on the conduct of South Africa’s much maligned police force.
Nine South African police officers have been charged with his murder, but denied the charges in a bail hearing on Friday.
Macia’s coffin arrived in Mozambique during the night, and mourners could view his body before the funeral at a school nearby.
Friends described him as a humble man and spoke of the profound shock his death has caused in the community of Matola Rio where his father is a local leader.
Around 2,000 people attended the funeral, among them several government officials and Mozambican liberation hero and elder statesman Marcelino dos Santos — signaling how much the brutal crime has shaken the country.
Before the funeral, the NGO Human Rights League marched to the South African High Commission in central Maputo.
“Down with xenophobia,” chanted the crowd of around 80 people, brandishing banners with the words “Stop Humiliating Mozambicans” and “Mido Macia forever.”
South Africa sent Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane to Maputo on Thursday to meet with Mozambique President Armando Guebuza and soften the diplomatic embarrassment over the incident.
Ordinary South Africans who traveled especially for the funeral said the killing showed their country had not yet dealt with its violent past under white minority rule and intense distrust of migrants.