/ 1 March 2013

Phiyega suspends police officers in taxi driver video

Phiyega Suspends Police Officers In Taxi Driver Video

"I have also instructed that the officers involved be disarmed," she said during a media briefing in Pretoria on Friday.

"We are also removing the current station commander of Daveyton police station from his position, so that investigations can proceed uninhibited," she said. "We are equally outraged with what happened."

Mido Macia (27), a taxi driver and Mozambican national, was tied to the back of a police van and dragged along the street in Daveyton, on the East Rand, on Tuesday. An eyewitness filmed the assault.

Macia died in the local police station's cells later that day. The incident has been widely condemned, with several organisations and opposition parties attributing it to brutality and a lack of discipline in the South African Police Service.

Government also condemned the violence on Friday. "Government expresses its deepest condolences to the victim's family, friends and community," spokesperson Phumla Williams said in a statement.

"No acts of abuse and crime will be tolerated in our country. We are confident that Independent Police Investigative Directorate will conduct an independent and impartial investigation, and that the wheels of justice will turn in all abuse and criminal cases."

'Dealt with accordingly'
Williams said the government assured South Africans that police subscribed to a code of conduct.

"If South African Police Service officials are found to be in violation of the code of conduct, they will be dealt with accordingly."

The Congress of South African Trade Unions, the Congress of the People, the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union, the Democratic Alliance, Amnesty International and the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution have also condemned the incident. – Sapa