North West – A police officer accused of dragging an off-duty court interpreter alongside his car has been charged with attempted murder, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate said.
The 36-year-old sergeant, based at the Lomanyaneng police station in Mahikeng, North West, appeared in court on Friday.
The case was postponed to Wednesday for a formal bail application, said Ipid spokesman Moses Dlamini.
Dlamini said the officer was arrested on Thursday for allegedly assaulting a man in Setlopo Village and dragging him alongside a police vehicle.
The incident occurred on March 7, just days after Daveyton taxi driver Mido Macia died after being dragged behind a police van and allegedly assaulted in police cells. His case was postponed to March 20 to allow for further investigation.
On Friday morning North West police spokesman Brigadier Thulani Ngubane denied that the officer in the latest incident had tied a man to his vehicle.
“I don’t know where the media got the story from,” he told The Star.
Ngubane said that on March 7, the 36-year-old sergeant, based at the Lomanyaneng police station, had responded to a complaint by a tuck shop owner in Setlopo village, Mahikeng.
When he arrived, he found the tuck shop owner and a customer arguing over an issue related to payment of goods.
The officer began arguing with the customer.
While they were still in the tuck shop, Ngubane said, the man’s friend arrived and began arguing with the officer.
“That man started verbally abusing the police officer. The officer then left the tuck shop and got into his car to leave.
“The man followed him, went to his window and kept insulting him. The car was in motion at the time and the officer then grabbed his clothes and kept driving. He let go and the man fell,” Ngubane said.
Dlamini told The Star that the man’s version was that the police officer had called him to the police vehicle on the driver’s side to confront him.
“The driver grabbed the complainant by the neck and asked him if he knew what police were capable of these days.
“The policeman allegedly drove off and dragged the complainant for about 100m,” said Dlamini.
The man, a court interpreter at Molopo Magistrate’s Court, sustained injuries to his feet and was taken to a hospital by a neighbour.
Because of his injuries, he was able to lay charges against the police officer only on Tuesday.
Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa condemned the incident, saying: “We must all of us as a society mobilise and sustain a campaign against any allegations of police brutality and lawlessness, across all spheres of society. Critical in fighting crime is the campaign to weed out elements within the criminal justice system who are engaged in various acts of crime, even if it involves our own officers.”
North West Premier Thandi Modise said on Thursday that police officers who thought they were a law unto themselves had no place in the SAPS.
“Incidents of police brutality and violence unleashed on citizens by members of the police service have the potential to antagonise communities against the police and should be stamped out before it’s too late,” she said.
“The culture of violence should not be allowed to take root in our police service as it undermines democratic and accountable community policing.”
The nine police officers accused of Macia’s murder were denied bail this week.
Macia was found dead in police cells late last month after being dragged about 400m behind a marked police van in Daveyton with his hands bound behind his head and tied to a bench in the back of the van.
The police had confronted him about a parking violation and have claimed that he had tried to grab one of the officers’ guns.
Despite being dragged in a seated position, the post-mortem showed that he died of head injuries, and Ipid said it was investigating a murder case.
It could not rule out the possibility that Macia was assaulted in the police cells.
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