E/CN.4/1996/35/Add.1 page 112 South Africa Information transmitted to the Government 592. By letter dated 26 June 1995 the Special Rapporteur advised the Government that he had received information indicating that, despite the advent of a number of reforms in the operations of the South African Police Service (SAPS), torture and ill-treatment of persons in police custody continued to occur in the country. Most incidents of torture were said to take place during the 48- to 72-hour period during which police are authorized under the Criminal Procedure Act to detain an arrested person before presenting him or her to court. The methods of torture reported include beatings, rape and indecent assault, blindfolding, gagging, partial suffocation, tear-gassing, administration of electric shocks, prolonged suspension, painful handcuffing, sleep deprivation, food deprivation, enforced standing, withholding of medical treatment, subjection to mock executions and exposure to the torture of other persons. Torture was reportedly employed to obtain "confessions", to elicit information by "breaking down" persons physically and psychologically, and to inflict informal punishment. 593. A practice said to create conditions conducive to the occurrence of torture was that of holding detainees in police vehicles or unofficial places before taking them to police stations. Significant breaches of police procedure regarding the logging in of the time of arrest, the identity of the arresting officer or the time of arrival at police station were reported to be common. In addition, detainees were also frequently denied the opportunity to contact the outside world, resulting in the de facto occurrence of incommunicado detention. 594. It was reported that many victims of torture or ill-treatment were reluctant to file complaints against police officers for fear of reprisals, that in some cases police had brought spurious criminal charges against persons filing complaints and that in other cases police had refused outright to register complaints. The police reporting officer (PRO), established in 1992 to deal with the handling of such complaints, had been refused systematically access to dockets and information in certain areas of the country and had ceased to function entirely in other areas. Prosecutions were said to be rare, as the Attorney-General’s office frequently declined to prosecute alleged perpetrators of assault or torture. 595. The Special Rapporteur also transmitted the individual cases described in the paragraphs below. 596. Jan Mokokeng, Moses Nzimande, Simon Ngubeni and Johannes Maduna were allegedly tortured between 27 and 31 December 1993, following their arrest by members of the Vanderbijlpark Murder and Robbery Unit in connection with a hand-grenade explosion in Vereeniging prison in December 1993. Jan Mokokeng, while held face-down on the floor with his arms handcuffed behind his back and tied to his feet, was allegedly doused with water and subjected to electric shocks to his temples, wrists, penis, left ear and right thigh. He was also allegedly beaten all over the body and threatened with death. Moses Nzimande, while blindfolded, hooded and bound, was also allegedly doused with water while electric shocks were administered to his penis, near his right eye and