Local nail technician and Sunnyridge resident Anika Doussy (25), is upset, angry and traumatised after her ordeal with the Primrose police, last Wednesday.
The young woman was walking along Beaconsfield Avenue, in Primrose, just after 11am, on her way to a client’s home, as she works as a private nail technician, when a Primrose van stopped next to her and her companion, Jason Stark (25).
The police officer in the vehicle demanded to see Doussy’s ID book.
When she explained that she didn’t have it with her, as it was at home, he told her she had better get into the back of the van.
“He said ‘don’t make me grab you and throw you in’,” Doussy’s said.
“He made me get into the van and told me only that I was a missing girl.”
Doussy was then taken to Collins Road, where someone from a house came to the back of the van and looked at her.
“I didn’t know what was going on and no one would tell me,” she said.
The police then set off to Boksburg, where they were allegedly collecting information about the missing girl.
After leaving Boksburg, they travelled to Malvern, where Doussy was left in the back of the van for over 20 minutes in the blazing heat.
“The officer eventually came back with two other men in plain clothes; I don’t know whether they were police officers or not,” Doussy said.
“One of the men got into the back of the van with me and we then proceeded to the Primrose Police Station.”
Throughout her ordeal, she said, the officer was extremely verbally abusive towards her.
Stark told the Germiston City News that the officer had verbally abused him when he tried to tell him not to take Doussy.
While Doussy was being driven around the countryside, Stark went to find his brother, Gareth Gordon (Doussy’s fiancé).
The two arrived at the Primrose Police Station and were told to sit and wait.
“No one seemed to know anything about her being picked up,” Stark said.
When Doussy eventually arrived at the police station she was taken to the holding cells and it took her a long time to explain to the detective that she was not the missing girl Nikita Bekker (14).
Bekker’s photo had appeared in the Germiston City News (GCN, February 13) and Doussy said the officer who had accosted her had a copy of it with him.
Doussy bears no resemblance to the missing girl.
She is a woman, not a girl.
Someone had to fetch Doussy’s ID book and this was run through the police system.
“There were no records of me being missing or wanted for any crimes,” she said.
The young woman is extremely upset about the incident.
“They eventually told me to go home, not leave my yard and that I mustn’t make friends with would-be criminals,” she said.
“Both my fiancé and I lost out on a day’s income because of this.”
When she asked to see the station commander or be given his contact details she was told that this was not possible.
Doussy’s treatment leaves many unanswered questions.
Not only was the treatment she received unacceptable, but the question: “If she had actually been a missing 14-year-old girl, would this type of treatment been acceptable?” needs to be asked.
The Germiston City News approached the Primrose police for comment on the matter and asked them various questions about the incident.
We asked about the verbal abuse of the two by the officer – how is this acceptable? Is it common practice from the police?
If she had been a missing child, a minor, how traumatised would she have been after being verbally abused by a police officer, someone who is supposed to protect her?
The fact that the officer forced her into the back of the van and then drove around with her.
Why did he do this? And why was he driving around to areas which are not in the Primrose policing district – where his vehicle is supposed to be?
The fact that she is actually a woman, not a girl, and the fact that the officer could not see this?
Also, that she does not look at all like the person in the photo, on what was he basing his thinking?
The rudeness of the police and the fact that she was taken to the holding cells when she wasn’t under arrest?
In this case, if she had, in fact, been a young, scared 14-year-old missing child, do the police think that this type of treatment is warranted?
Do the Primrose police treat all missing people like this: chucking them into the back of the police van, driving around with them to random places, leaving them in the backs of vans in the sweltering heat and then putting them in the holding cells at the police station?
Does this not cause fear and stress for the people involved, especially if they are children or, as in this case, are thought to be a child?
The response received from Sgt Styles Maome, the communications officer from the Primrose SAPS did not answer any of our questions.
He said: “In response to your query, the Primrose police urge the complainant to visit our office to lay a complaint against the police and it will be investigated.
“As for the station commander’s contact numbers, his photo and contact number are on the wall in the charge office.
“The complainant should just have written down the number as it is written on the wall in bold writing.”
