Pretoria - DA councillor Elma Nel, who was injured during rowdy city council meeting in Tshwane, is holding thumbs that the MRI scan she is set to undergo on Friday will not call for surgery.
Speaking from her hospital bed at Eugene Marais Hospital where she was admitted after the meeting, Nel maintains she was not taking pictures of ANC councillor Joel Masilela, the person she claims hurt her.
“He came storming towards me screaming: You didn’t have my permission to take photos of me’ and I said to him that I didn’t take photos of him but of the broken glass doors. But he grabbed my phone. As he did that he took my hands and with his elbow hit me across the face.
“That is where it got really bad because I could actually hear something snap in my back. It was so sore, and then all the other councillors came between us and came to assist,” she said from her hospital bed.
The DA councillor alleged that even after the initial altercation Masilela kept shouting: “I’m coming for you, I’m coming for you.”
“I’ve had to get an X-ray and a CT scan and early tomorrow (on Friday) I will be doing the MRI scan. I really hope that things are not so bad that I will need surgery for this.”
She said she had laid charges with the police but they had yet to get back to her.
A defiant Masilela said he would be waiting unfazed for the police to arrest him.
Masilela claimed the incident was nothing more than a ploy by Nel to “create media hype over baseless lies”.
He said recent news reports (of rowdiness in the council) were the DA’s attempt at trying to portray the ANC as unruly and violent.
“We are governed by rules which clearly state that no photographs or videos are supposed to be taken of council members without prior permission to do so. And we reminded her of this repeatedly which she disregarded completely,” he said on Thursday.
Masilela said Nel proceeded to bring her phone closer to them when the police were having an altercation with the public, which was not allowed.
“We told her to delete the images and she blatantly refused. We went over in full view of her colleagues and deleted two videos and a photo taken without consent and simply gave back her phone.
“When we disagree we disagree, but we can’t be reduced to being petty and verbally abusing someone. And I will continue to maintain that not a single person laid a hand on her,” said Masilela.
SAPS provincial spokesman Captain Kay Makhubele said the matter was still under investigation and no one had been arrested yet.
Pretoria News