South African court seeks answers on missing Nigerian after drug raid

The Johannesburg Excessive Court docket has directed the Autonomous Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) to file a entire listing relating to the alleged assault and disappearance of Nigerian nationwide, Silas Ani, for the length of a television-recorded drug raid.

The court docket instructed that the listing, which must embody solutions for note-up action, be submitted to the National Director of Public Prosecutions by 8 August 2025, with a copy shared with Ani’s family.

The ruling follows a hearing into events surrounding a 24 April 2025 operation filmed for the investigative demonstrate Sizok’thola, which airs on DStv’s Moja Bask in channel. Take Denise Fisher, presiding over the topic, referenced testimony indicating that Ani and varied Nigerian nationals had been subjected to bodily abuse for the length of the raid.

“An operation was undertaken by a team of individuals, including security firms and the operators of a TV programme on Moja Bask in, which has as its cause the identification of [people] suspected of being all for drug peddling or drug utter,” said Take Fisher.

“These men, all Nigerian voters, had been taken to an empty flat the attach they had been tortured brutally by being beaten for the cause of getting them to confess on camera.”

Factual counsel representing Ani’s family, Magda Bezuidenhout, said the family is in fracture on account of a lack of facts about Ani’s condition or whereabouts.

“The family wants to know if he’s alive or no longer. And if no longer, the attach is his body so that they'll bury him,” she said. Citing police records offered in court docket, Take Fisher neatly-known that Ani was final seen unconscious, placed into a dark BMW driven by masked participants allegedly linked to the programme’s presenter, Xolani Khumalo. Regardless of police statements denying involvement, the court docket was confirmed visual evidence suggesting the presence of uniformed officers for the length of the raid.

“The photos reveals civilians making arrests and inserting participants into police trucks whereas uniformed officers stood by,” the resolve said.

“The police seem to admit that by some means, these men, in their injured advise, had been taken to the Springs police predicament, the attach an ambulance was known as. None of them had been charged.”

Thulani Magagula, assistant director at IPID, confirmed the irregular nature of the operation and said that police had been on the scene.

“In an operation, the police must be responsible,” Magagula said. “But in this operation, it was a surprise when civilians had been responsible in its attach of the police.”

He reported the existence of video photos showing presenter Khumalo making arrests and loading suspects into police autos.

“That’s no longer protocol and gruesome, because respondents two and three [Siyaya Media Network and Khumalo] don’t hang ethical standing to habits any search. But in this instance, they did, and that’s unlawful.”

Magagula also shared data from look statements, indicating that the detainees had been stripped and beaten with a cricket bat.

“The missing particular person [Ani] was also tortured whereas naked,” he said. “The final time Ani was seen, he was unconscious and in the custody of Khumalo and his team—no longer the police.”

Efforts by IPID to trace Ani’s whereabouts thru his mobile provider provider live ongoing. Magagula raised concerns that Ani might moreover hang died for the length of the incident.

“Ani might need died on the self-discipline,” he told the court docket. “I inform that because his motion is managed on the Home Affairs, and it reveals that he by no blueprint left the nation. His deepest checking narrative shall be stagnant.”

In handing over her ruling, Take Fisher expressed the hang to give some build of assurance to the victim’s family.

“I am hoping comfort is given to your client and their family that an investigation is underway,” she said.

The topic has drawn consideration to the role of televised interventions in legislation enforcement operations and intensified debate over the rights of foreign nationals in South Africa.