Stephan Myburgh regrets the mistake he made that caused him to be arrested for possession of dagga and said he “learnt his lesson” – yet he is furious about the treatment he received from the police.
Myburgh said on 28 December a dealer called him to collect his “Christmas gift”. “I only smoke once in a blue moon,” explained Myburgh. He went to Station Square in Roodepoort CBD but as he walked away with the small bag of dagga, a white unmarked Toyota Quantum pulled up next to him and uniformed police officers confronted him “They found the dagga in my trousers and when I got into the vehicle, they ordered me to take down my pants to see if I was hiding some more. This they did in full view of a female officer,” said Myburgh. According to him he asked the police why they arrested him for only one bag, but not the supplier who was a mere 100m away, the policeman allegedly replied, “We have to make 11 arrests today”.
At about 11.45am he was taken to Roodepoort Police Station. “The female officer who charged me was especially delighted to see me,” said Myburgh sarcastically. “I had reported her to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate on a previous occasion. She kept on repeating, ‘Now is my time with you, now is my time’.” While he was still in the minibus en route to the police station, he managed to send a message to his sister, asking her to go to the station.
“They neither gave me the notification slip of my rights nor gave me an opportunity to make a phone call. When my sister arrived they told her they would not lock me up with other suspects, but did so anyway. In the cell were at least 14 other customers of the same dealer,” said Myburg. “Everything was okay until about 11pm when a DJ from a nearby hotel was brought into the cell. He had a cellphone, which he told us belonged to one of the police officers. He said we must all message a family member and ask that they send R30 airtime, which we did. He then said we must ask our families to each send R100 via e-Wallet because we were going to have a party in the cell,” explained Myburgh. When the DJ asked him to smuggle a cellphone from the Roodepoort Magistrates’ Court to the Krugersdorp Correctional Facility in his rectum the next day, he refused and insisted to be put in another cell. Myburgh was then taken to a cell where he was the only detainee.
The next day, while the detainees were being taken to court for their first appearance, one of the others told him that he had “missed a party”. Myburgh alleged that the man told him that the police officers on duty went to buy KFC, Energade, Doritos and chewing gum for the men in the cell and that they were even allowed to smoke dagga.
“One of the police officers even helped to clean the cell at about 5am because the next shift was due to arrive,” Myburgh said.
At the court Myburgh and four others were called from Court H’s holding cells but were told by the police officer to “go home”. This was highly irregular in the face of the fact that he had been arrested and charged, but then was set free just before having to appear before the magistrate.
Myburgh did report the incident to the Roodepoort Police station commander, Brigadier Manala, and the station sent the Record the following statement: “Be informed that this office has launched an internal investigation into the matter. A departmental misconduct has been registered against the members involved and the incident is under investigation.”
Do you perhaps have more information pertaining to this story? Email us at roodepoortrecord@caxton.co.za (remember to include your contact details) or phone us on 011 955 1130.
For free daily local news on the West Rand, also visit our sister newspaper websites
Remember to visit our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages to let your voice be heard!
