Unconscious victim dumped at community clinic
Peter Luhanga
- Dunoon resident Lisakhanya Noyi, 26, says he was beaten unconscious by an off-duty cop and three others after being wrongly accused of robbery.
- Police allegedly left him at Dunoon Community Health Centre at 4:45 am, claiming he was a victim of vigilante justice.
- Dunoon Neighbourhood Watch says they have no knowledge of any community assault that night, contradicting police claims.
- A common assault case was registered, later transferred to IPID, which is investigating allegations against officers.
A Dunoon man claims he was brutally beaten by an off-duty police officer and three other men after being wrongly accused of robbery, leaving him hospitalised for days over the New Year.
Lisakhanya Noyi, 26, said he and his cousin, Buhle Noyi, 21, both of whom live in Ekuphumuleni informal settlement in Dunoon left his sister-in-law’s birthday party shortly before 9pm on Sunday 29 December to find Lisakhanya’s girlfriend near the Dunoon taxi rank. Unable to find her, they walked along Tulip Street toward Mnandi Street, where they were stopped by a group of three men.
Lisakhanya says one of the men, later identified as an off-duty police officer, accused them of robbing him outside his home on the same street. The group insisted that three men – including Lisakhanya and Buhle – had stolen his cellphone.
Lisakhanya says the men ordered him and Buhle to sit down. Fearing for their safety, they complied, only to be violently interrogated. He says he pleaded with the men to search them, and when they did, and did not find the phone, the off-duty police officer accused them of having handed the phone off to a third person. Lisakhanya asked how that was possible, at which point the officer allegedly started slapping his cousin, Buhle.
“He (the off-duty police officer) was very upset. He told us to sit down, and we did. We wanted to prove we had done nothing wrong. We even asked him how we could have robbed someone and then walked down the same street like nothing happened?”
“I saw my cousin being beaten, and then they turned on me. That’s when I told him (Buhle), ‘let’s run from the attack’,” said Lisakhanya.
Buhle managed to escape, but Lisakhanya unknowingly ran straight into a fourth man who was part of the group but hadn’t been there when they were first confronted.
What followed was a beating so brutal that he blacked out.
He was later dropped off at Dunoon Community Health Centre in a police van the next morning. The officially recorded time of admittance in his medical file was 4:45am. The file listed gruesome head trauma, including multiple facial and skull lacerations that left him barely recognisable.
He woke up two days later, on New Year’s Day, in the New Somerset Hospital. He was so injured he could not eat solid food, or even feed himself.
Lisakhanya, who has a solid job as a cleaner in Killarney Gardens, said the attack has left him angry. “Every time I see a police van, it infuriates me,” he says.
His mother, Kholiswa Gaba, 53, said she was woken during the night by a commotion outside her home in Ekuphumuleni on 29 December.
Gaba said when she opened the door, she saw a uniformed police officer standing nearby, instructing her to let them in as they wanted to search for guns linked to her sons, of which Lisakhanya is the youngest.
Stepping outside, she noticed a police van parked near the Dunoon municipal hall. A few feet away, she saw someone lying in a puddle of stagnant water next to the communal toilets. As she moved closer, she realised it was Lisakhanya, badly injured and barely recognisable.
She said when she asked what had happened, a uniformed officer claimed Lisakhanya had robbed an off-duty police officer at gunpoint.
“I told them: ‘If that is the case, then let the law take its course’,” said Gaba.
She then saw officers place her son in the back of a police van. However, she said she found it unusual that the off-duty officer also entered the back of the van, despite there being available space in the front.
Later that night, accompanied by her sisters, Gaba walked approximately eight kilometres to Milnerton Police Station to take clothes to her son.
However, she said police officers on duty told her that no case had been opened and no one matching her son’s description was in custody.
Concerned, she made her way to Dunoon Community Health Centre, expecting to find her son under police guard, given the seriousness of the allegations.
However, she says there were no officers stationed at the facility. Instead, as she arrived, she says she saw a marked police van leaving the centre. When she asked nurses about the visit, she was told that officers had simply checked on Lisakhanya’s condition and left.
Later, at New Somerset Hospital, where Lisakhanya had been transferred for further treatment, she again found no police presence.
“We didn’t see any officers at New Somerset Hospital. I was feeding my son through a tube. There were no guards, no sign of an arrest,” said Gaba
She said the family opened a case at Milnerton Police Station on 31 December 2024.
She says although Lisakhanya has since been discharged, he has had to attend follow-up medical appointments at Groote Schuur Hospital.
The medical records also show that when police dropped him off, they told nurses he had been the victim of a “community assault”.
Dunoon Neighbourhood Watch spokesperson Bonginkosi Luthuli said there was no record of a community assault in the area on the night in question.
“If there was a mob justice we were likely to be aware of it,” said Luthuli.
Police spokesperson Captain FC van Wyk confirmed that a case of common assault was registered at Milnerton Police station on Tuesday, 31 December 2024.
“The case was transferred to IPID for further investigation,” said Van Wyk.
Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) spokesperson Phaladi Shuping stated the incident was reported to IPID and the case is under investigation.
“The matter is still under investigation, meaning the charges will only be laid against anyone once there is evidence,” said Shuping.