Gauteng provincial minister of community safety Firoz Cachalia said on Wednesday he is concerned about allegations that police abused their power by threatening and intimidating a prostitute and a photographer in Pretoria.
”In a democratic society everyone is entitled to humane and lawful treatment by the police,” Cachalia said.
He said, assuming that the allegations are true, he will seek a report from the provincial commissioner and request the Independent Complaints Directorate to investigate the matter.
This comes after Sunnyside police allegedly brutally assaulted a woman on Tuesday night.
She is fighting for her life in hospital, the Pretoria News reported.
A Pretoria News photographer took pictures of men — allegedly plainclothes police officers — attacking a prostitute, but fled when the men turned their attention on him.
Paramedics rushed to attend to the woman, who lost consciousness after an apparent epileptic fit, and were seen carrying her on a stretcher to an ambulance.
”It was extremely brutal. I had just bought cigarettes from a vendor on the corner of Johann and Arcadia streets outside our block of flats when I heard women screaming,” claimed witness Uche Kalu, who watched the attack from Malet Flats.
”As I turned around, I saw two police officers grabbing two women and throwing them to the ground before grabbing one of the women and pushing her into the back of the police van.”
A police officer allegedly smashed the second woman’s head against the van’s back doors. When she fell to the ground, she was kicked.
Tshwane emergency services spokesperson Johan Pieterse confirmed that a seriously injured woman was taken to the Pretoria Academic Hospital
An anonymous caller had phoned for help for a woman having an ”epileptic fit”, he said.
A paramedic said the woman suffered severe head, neck and internal injuries and severe bruising.
Pretoria police spokesperson Inspector Anton Breedt said the matter would be investigated. — Sapa