I refer to your article Metro cops assault bus driver and passengers.
Despite your detailed account of the incident, backed up by the promised video footage and the Metro officer’s foul-mouthed quote when it was pointed out that we do not pay their salaries to exhibit such behaviour, JMPD spokesperson Wayne Minnaar’s vehement defence is that “they were doing their job”.
Their job? To arrest and manhandle if money is not available for a “spot fi ne” – and to a fellow Council colleague nogal? A JMPD spokesperson?
Sounds more like the union spokesperson. And this is not the first time he has sought to defend the indefensible in many bad incidents.
He says not to interfere/ argue, even if officers are in the wrong. Oh really? So when some run amuck – giving the good offi cers a bad name – ladies must not protest, as we did in the bad old days?
Or else be incarcerated for a good part of the day. (Perhaps wearing Numsa T-shirts would have protected them as is it did those vandals recently.)
Is this JMPD any different to John Pearce’s Traffi c Dept in the bad old 80s, which Tony Leon set about transforming? When will this JMPD receive transformation – and a copy of the Constitution – as we are 20 years into democracy?
In the meantime, please direct requests for comment to the ultimate political head, the member of the Mayoral Committee for Safety and Security, councillor Sello Lemao, and perhaps his colleague for Transport councillor Christine Walters, as to how her staff and passengers were treated. We are sure that they are only too well aware that the council elections are less than 21 months away. We must hold them to account.
