DA wants protection guaranteed for journalist following assault allegations

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has called on the South African Police Service (SAPS) to guarantee the safety and protection of Free State community media journalist Paul Nthoba following alleged senseless acts of violence, assault and intimidation by members of the police against him.

The incident prompted Nthoba to flee to the United Nations offices in Lesotho as “he feared for his life”.

“We strongly condemn the reported heavy-handedness on the part of the SAPS against a member of the press,” DA MP Okkie Terblanche said in a statement on Thursday.

Terblanche said reports indicated that while Nthoba, who was assaulted by the police while covering police visibility, was attempting to lay charges against the officers concerned, he was subjected to further abuse by officers at the Ficksburg Police Station who attempted to dissuade him from laying charges.

READ: Ipid still looking for journo Paul Nthoba, who was allegedly assaulted by cops.

He said the DA also called on the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) to fulfil its mandate and independently investigate the “gross disregard for press freedom” and the SAPS’s seeming indifference to their mandate to protect and serve.

“We have long been raising the issue of the police’s violent tactics while conducting their duties during this lockdown. It is horrifying that a member of the public, especially a journalist, would feel so threatened to the extent that they have to flee their own democratic country in fear of those who are mandated to protect them.

“South Africa is not a police state, it is a constitutional democracy, and therefore all rights of citizens which are enshrined in the constitution must at all times be protected and preserved.

“This increase in cases of police brutality during this Covid-19 lockdown period must be dealt with and all those implicated in these acts must face the full might of the law,” he said.

The MP said the DA would continue to monitor the conduct of the police closely, to ensure that the SAPS did not continue to act with impunity.

“No one is above the law, including law enforcement officers,” he concluded.

(Compiled by Molefe Seeletsa)

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