Maselspoort Resort: Charges upgraded to attempted murder  

Free State police confirmed they would upgrade the common assault charges against a group of white men who attacked two black teenagers at a resort on Christmas Day to attempted murder charges.

The change in the charge sheet comes after police obtained more information regarding the alleged racist altercation at the Maselspoort Resort in Bloemfontein.

Police spokesperson Brigadier Motantsi Makhele said investigators received additional statements, and the docket was presented before a senior state prosecutor.

“It was after obtaining these statements, the docket was presented to the senior state prosecutor who gave a directive that a charge can be changed to attempted murder given additional facts,” said Makhele.

ALSO READ: Time to collectively deal with racism, or Maselspoort incident bound to be repeated

Altercation

The allegedly racially motivated attack video was shared by the teenagers’ sister on Twitter, showing a group of white adult males preventing the boys, aged 13 and 18, from using the pool.

The men can be seen hitting one of the boys and grabbing him by the neck.

Another man jumped into the pool with one of the boys and submerged his head into the water.

The video has since gone viral and sparked public outrage, with aggrieved citizens calling for police to open attempted murder charges.

‘Investigate first’

“Given this first information of crime which was received by the police at that time, the only charges which could be registered were assault common and Crimen Injuria.

“We want to put it on record that the police never downgraded any crime but worked and were informed by first statement as obtained from the complainant,” added Makhele.

He said police in this incident had to investigate to arrest, not to arrest first ,and conduct investigations after.

“The docket was received back from the senior state prosecutor with clear directives, the investigator is now working on these directives and we anticipate that the perpetrator or perpetrators will within no time be brought before a court of law to account on this incident,” said Makhele.

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