Three metro police officers and their families have gone into hiding for fear of their lives, the Johannesburg High Court heard on Wednesday. They are ”living in terror”, their counsel, Marne Strydom, told the court.
The three men — chief superintendents Stanley Segathevan and Patrick Johnston, and Superintendent Itumeleng Koko — have asked the court to grant an order restraining metro police chief Robert McBride from coming within 100m of them and from harassing, intimidating or injuring them.
They claim to have been threatened, harassed and intimidated since making a report on a car crash involving McBride seven months ago.
McBride was in court on Wednesday to oppose their application, which was postponed on Tuesday when it emerged that McBride had been told to be in court on the wrong day. On Wednesday, McBride was not only in court himself, but was also understood to have flown in a high-powered legal team from Durban.
He has denied allegations that he was drunk at the time of the accident and claims to remember nothing of it. At the time, metro police officers were accused of assaulting witnesses who tried to stop them removing McBride from the scene, and of trying to cover up for him.
Strydom claims that the threats made against the men were conditional on their not making statements that contradicted those of McBride.
She submitted that statements to this effect made to the National Prosecuting Authority had become public knowledge when they were published in a daily newspaper on Monday.
McBride’s counsel Nazeer Cassim, however, told the court that it was known by the end of May that contradictory statements had been made.
He contended that the only effects of an order against McBride would be to make him look bad in the public domain without giving him an opportunity to present his side of the case. Instead, he submitted that the court accept ”an undertaking”, but did not specify the details of this.
The court adjourned briefly to allow both sides to draft an order they consider appropriate. — Sapa