Police are still investigating the circumstances surrounding Ekurhuleni metro police chief Robert McBride’s car accident in Centurion last week.
”The investigations are continuing,” said Gauteng provincial police spokesperson Director Govindsamy Mariemuthoo.
”Once finalised, it will be placed before the director of public prosecution who will then make a decision to prosecute or not.”
A case of reckless or negligent driving was opened against McBride after he lost control of his car last Thursday.
A docket with two charges — crimen injuria and assault -‒ was opened against metro police officers by a husband and his wife who were at the accident scene.
Metro police officers travelling the same route on the R511 as McBride were the first to arrive at the scene.
Mariemuthoo said the second docket was opened against ”police” and did not specify individuals. The case was opened at Randburg but transferred to the Erasmia police station as the accident fell under that station’s jurisdiction.
Controversy surrounding the crash has included allegations that McBride was under the influence of alcohol and that metro police officers had assaulted and threatened bystanders.
Earlier, media reports quoted witnesses saying McBride was ”blind drunk”.
Mariemuthoo said the investigation could take weeks or months.
McBride was released from hospital last Friday. His most serious injuries were to his head and he also sustained broken ribs, cuts and bruises.
Ekurhuleni mayor Duma Nkosi told a media briefing last Friday: ”Please don’t ask me to take a view or have an opinion without being informed. If we get a report at the end of the investigation, we will then decide how we will act.”
Nkosi said that according to officers at the function, McBride ”was not in the state that he couldn’t drive”.
He urged people with information to take it to the police investigators.
Commenting on reports that an AK-47 rifle was taken from McBride’s car, Nkosi said the police chief carried a pistol and a large, heavier-calibre weapon.
The bigger one, a LM6, could have been mistaken for an AK-47, which is not a police-issue weapon.
”People who saw an AK might have seen a big weapon. As the chief of police, he does carry firearms which were retrieved … the big one might have looked like an AK-47.”
McBride’s wife, Nina, told the briefing that McBride had called at 7.01pm to say he was badly hurt in a serious car accident and that officers would take him to hospital. He called again at 7.05pm and 7.06pm and repeated the same information, she said.
”It then became clear to me that he was suffering from some type of head trauma as he was repeating the same thing.”
McBride had left for the function at about 4pm after he had been shopping with his family, she said. ”He’s very lucky to be alive.” — Sapa