The civil rights organisation AfriForum assisted a couple from the White River district to submit a criminal charge after they were apparently intimidated, assaulted and threatened with firearms by members of a security company on 28 March 2021. This incident took place in the presence of police members at the White River Police Station.
The police members initially refused to process the charge.
A video containing footage of how the couple was assaulted in the police station was in the meantime circulated widely on social media.
AfriForum will also help the couple to submit a charge at PSiRA (Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority) against the alleged security officials. AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit under the leadership of Adv. Gerrie Nel will institute an investigation into the police’s failure to act whilst offences took place in front of them.
“If these criminals that traumatised this couple are indeed security officials, their actions are in contravention of the entire nature of the PSiRA code of conduct. Their behaviour is simply unacceptable. Something that further repels AfriForum is the fact that this behaviour took place in a police station in the presence of police officials that are supposed to protect citizens. We cannot simply ignore this matter,” says Marnus Kamfer, AfriForum’s Legal and Risk Manager for Community Safety.
Read the original article in Afrikaans on AfriForum
Watch: Video: Assault in White River Police station
