PAUL KIRK, Durban | Friday
DURBAN’S R10-million metro police video surveillance system has caught out a rogue metro cop – nearly three years after he attacked a handcuffed suspect for no apparent reason.
This week the Mail & Guardian was given a copy of a police videotape that clearly shows an obviously defenceless suspect being struck on the head with a shotgun and then kicked with a well-aimed boot to his midriff.
While the violence is not as brutal as the “dog training” video which surfaced last year showing South African Police Service dog handlers using illegal immigrants as live bait, it still raises serious questions about how the assault went unpunished for so long.
The video shows that the footage was shot on June 21 1998, shortly before 10pm. The camera was located on the corner of Walnut and Commercial roads.
The surveillance cameras used in Durban are operated by specially trained policemen inside a central control room. From this room police can zoom in on a crime scene and also pan the cameras on to different areas. The cameras can also be set to automatically roam the area around them in a pre-programmed way. All footage filmed by the cameras is recorded and kept in a secure storage area.
The video given to the M&G was, according to a senior metro police officer who was shown the tape, clearly being shot with a camera operated by a policeman. The video zooms in on the assault while it is taking place – indicating that a camera operator had to have witnessed the assault.
The control room where the camera was operated from includes the metro police radio dispatch room and is supervised by at least a senior sergeant.
Although many potential witnesses saw the assault, no action was apparently taken against the policeman who conducted the assault.
An impeccable source inside the metro police says that, while records going back three years are sketchy, he has pieced together what happened before the assault.
Police were summoned to the area near Freedom Wall where an armed robbery was apparently in progress at a business premises. Freedom Wall is a monument in the city and comprises the last remaining wall of the old city prison and its watch-towers. It is situated only a short distance from metro police headquarters on a bus route often used by off-duty metro cops. This, the officer explained, accounted for the very large number of police who can be seen in the video.
Upon arriving at the scene, the police could find no sign of the robbers and searched the watch-towers. Inside one of the towers, two vagrants were found. The vagrants were apparently arrested as suspects in the robbery. The source said speculation was rife in the metro police that the beating was administered to force a confession – or make the person indicate where the real robbers fled.
However, no records could be found this week of the outcome of the arrest. And there were no records to indicate if any action was taken against the policeman who rifle-butted and kicked the vagrant.
Director Henry Manzi, commander of the metro police, said his force would be examining the videotape closely and investigating. Manzi said the investigation would probe whether the policeman on the tape is fit to hold duty and will attempt to trace the victim of the assault. Criminal charges of assault may also be opened.