Sipho Philip Mutsi died in 1985 at the Odendaalrus police station, he was the youngest detainee to die in police custody at age 17. He was arrested with connection to riots in the Odendaalrus area.The police stated that he had lost consciousness at the police station due to an epileptic fit, hereafter he was admitted to Pelonomi Hospital in Bloemfontein, where he died.
His family called for an inquest, as they did not believe the statements made by police officials at the time. Sipho Mutsi’s post-mortem autopsy showed that he had died a head injury, which could not have been natural causes. Lawyer, Richard Spoor, announced a state autopsy showed the cause of death to be a brain haemorrhage, the result of a blow to his head. The inquest commenced on 2 December 1985.
Coleman, M. (ed)(1998). A Crime Against Humanity: analysing the repression of the apartheid state, Johannesburg: Human Rights Committee