Mokopane traffic cop video: Muni steps in
The Mogalakwena Municipality in a press statement said the trend of disrespecting and intimidating law enforcement officers who perform their duties.
POLOKWANE – The Mogalakwena Municipality has issued a statement following a video that went viral on social media on Wednesday afternoon, involving a traffic officer from Mokopane.
“As members of the community, we tend to abuse the use of social media and people who are protecting us (police officers, traffic officers, soldiers and security officers) are on a daily basis being disrespected by drivers and passengers, and nothing is being done to protect them from this abuse,” a statement reads.
According to information, traffic officer Lappies Labuschagne, who has 27 years’ working experience in the department, stopped the driver of a bakkie in Pretorius Street at around 15:00 on Wednesday. Since the driver could not produce a driver’s licence, the vehicle was not roadworthy and the licence disc had expired in October 2023, the vehicle was impounded.
“It was later discovered that the driver doesn’t have a driver’s licence and that he was not the owner of the vehicle. The vehicle was then taken to the Mogalakwena Local Municipality’s Traffic and Fire Station for storage and for us to contact the owner,” the statement reads.
An hour later, the driver went to the fire station and lied to the security officer saying he was given permission by the MLM traffic chief to collect the vehicle, the municipality reported.
“It was then that our officer found the driver trying to switch on the engine by hotwiring the vehicle. He requested the driver to step out of the vehicle and to leave the municipal premises but the driver refused. Our officer tried to remove him out of the vehicle but he resisted, and in a tussle our officer lost his balance and fell to the ground.”
The municipality states that the driver’s gesture around the moon bag he was carrying, caused the traffic officer to drawing his firearm for protection, even though it was at no point pointed at the driver.
“It was at this point that the driver started taking pictures and videos of our officer swearing at him and also lost his balance. The municipality will be opening a case of driving without a driver’s licence, driving an unroadworthy vehicle, trespassing, attempting to steal a motor vehicle under false pretence against and a case of interference and intimidation will be opened against the driver’s brother,” the statement reads.
It was later discovered that the vehicle belongs to the driver’s brother, who is a police officer in Bela-Bela. “It is alleged that the owner of the vehicle drove in a state vehicle from Bela-Bela without the authorisation of the commander and opened an assault case at the Mokopane Police Station on behalf of his brother against our officer.”
A man was allegedly assaulted by a traffic officer for driving without a license in Mokopane, Limpopo on Wednesday afternoon.
In a video, the man was seen being chased by the traffic officer who was heard swearing and promising to beat him. pic.twitter.com/ClItp57r2h
— MDN NEWS (@MDNnewss) February 8, 2024
The municipality caused road users in the strongest terms: “As South African residents, we need to be responsible citizens and condemn illegal driver behaviour in the strongest possible terms. It is a well-known fact that we are obliged to drive with our licences at all times, our vehicles must be roadworthy and our licence discs must be up to date. We would like to advise the community to respect law enforcement officers and cooperate with them.”
The trend of disrespecting and intimidating law enforcement officers who perform their duties and then taking videos to share them on social media pages, leads to one-sided accounts of what transpired in most instances, they said.
“Before recording the video, the driver was swearing and yelling at our officer for the best part of five minutes. We are regularly losing the lives of our officers who enforce the law on our roads. As a municipality we can allow any of the officials to be disrespected by members of the community, and failure to abide by the traffic rules will result in prosecution.”
Labuschagne could not immediately be reached for comment.
Read more in next week’s edition of Bosveld.
