No! to apartheid tactics
According to another passing motorist who videotaped the incident, the victim motorist was stopped by the officers outside the Mall of Africa in Midrand for driving a vehicle without licence plates.
The motorist kept on making excuses for not having the plates on as he claimed the car was new and that the plates were not attached, but were inside his car.
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The officers would not take any of that but continued manhandling the motorist, punching him and kicking him, as claimed by the witness. The officers later learnt that they were being videotaped and tried to bully the witness, but she insisted she had not broken any law and would, therefore, continue to record the incident.
Metro police spokesperson, Edna Mamonyane justified this assault but I beg to differ with her.
There is no justification whatsoever under the sun, for members of Metro police to assault, beat up, manhandle, or even rough up motorists as this takes us back to the dark days of apartheid, where people could be beaten, shot at, arrested and even killed willy-nilly.
It is part of this reason why we demilitarised the South African Police Force, from a force to a civilian protection service and we’re not going to allow anyone to take us back to those dark and horrible days.
We fought apartheid demanding to be duly arrested with dignity when we have committed offences, not to be manhandled or roughed up, beaten, shot at or even summarily executed without due legal processes being followed.
We fought apartheid for this, and anybody who dares to bring this pink elephant in the room back again, will be meted with the same wrath as given to those in similar situations during the apartheid regime, because at the dawn of democracy, we made a vow to never again bring apartheid through the back door.
If you document what is happening in our country today, you will realise that certain people are so power drunk that they will do anything, including reverting to apartheid tactics, to return themselves in power. Absolute power corrupts absolutely and this can be evidenced in Marikana and the daily police beatings of service delivery protesters and the ongoing harassment of motorists by Metro police officers.
I repeat, if I have committed a crime, let me be arrested in a dignified manner and not be summarily executed, beaten up or manhandled by power punch-drunk cops who want to assert their authority. The issue here is not about authority but about a crime I have committed.
