Officers from the Tshwane Metro Police (TMPD) apparently treated a member of AfriForum’s private prosecution unit harshly last week after they appeared on corruption-related charges in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court.
Barry Bateman, spokesperson for this unit, was found outside the courtroom on Thursday when he tried to take a video of Johnson Lebombo, Aubrey Phalane and Makgoba Raboshacia with his mobile phone after the court proceedings.
The three officers appeared in the dock minutes before on charges of extortion, robbery, kidnapping and intimidation.
Lebombo and Phalane were apparently not impressed with Bateman’s video-taking and apparently tried to take Bateman’s mobile phone from him.
Bateman says he was harshly treated during the incident and threatened with arrest.
He says, however, that the metro police officers’ actions are not surprising.
“If this is the behavior of accused policemen, just imagine the bravado of police officers when they are in uniform, armed and driving with blue lights.”
Several traumatized motorists approached RNews in the past few weeks after members of the TMPD stopped them, threatened them and finally forced them to pay thousands of rand to the officers.
A directive was issued last week – only a day before the incident at the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court – in terms of which motorists are granted permission to request a metro police officer’s appointment certificate and even take a photo of the officer or his or her vehicle.
According to AfriForum’s private prosecution unit, the three suspects in question are also on trial in five other cases, while the possibility of more charges against them is being investigated.
“Despite this, they are still on duty as serving Tshwane Metro Police officers,” says Bateman.
The three officers are accused in the case of pulling over a motorist in September last year and accusing him of exceeding the speed limit. The motorist’s partner and their ten-year-old daughter were in the vehicle with him.
The officers reportedly took the motorist’s personal firearm from him before threatening to arrest him. The man was then apparently forced to withdraw cash from an ATM at a petrol station in Rigella Avenue in Pretoria.
The man was then allegedly bound in the back of the metro police van and taken to a deserted area. There he handed them the R4 000 he withdrew from the ATM and they robbed him of a further R1 000, which was in his wallet.
The three accused appear in court again on 18 July in connection with this case.
