Allegedly fondled and intimately touched against her will, sexually harassed and verbally threatened, a Pretoria policewoman is now determined to make her commander pay for his apparent crimes.
On top of the alleged harassment and indecent assault, the Sunnyside police station constable’s union representative is now also being targeted in an alleged attempt to get the policewoman to withdraw the criminal charges she laid.
The South African Police Union’s Tshwane representative, Isaiah Matlala, was arrested on Wednesday on charges of malicious damage to property in a case in which he is the complainant. The arrest came a day after he began making enquiries into progress in the investigation.
His enquiries came after more than a month of apparent inaction and alleged stonewalling by senior Sunnyside police officers following pleas from the constable for a high- ranking officer at the police station to be investigated.
The investigation should have begun after the constable, who cannot be named because of the nature of the crimes, had gone to the commander of the station’s Crime Prevention Unit to report the alleged assault earlier this month.
With no steps apparently being taken by the commander, the constable turned to the Sunnyside police station cluster commander, Major-General Girly Mbele, who is also believed not to have reacted.
Speaking to the Pretoria News, the constable said she had gone to the unit’s commander after the alleged assaults, which allegedly first took place in July, did not stop.
“I was so scared. I did not know what to do. I thought they would stop if I ignored the officer, but they didn’t,” the constable said.
She said the first assault occurred when the officer, who is yet to appear in court despite being criminally charged a week ago, gave her a lift home.
A suspect, once arrested, should by law appear in court within 48-hours. It is not known why the officer has not been arrested.
Describing the first alleged assault, the policewoman said she had just finished taking part in a late night operation when the officer offered to give her a lift home.
“We were driving when he started making comments about me, telling me I am beautiful and saying he wanted to kiss me. He held my hand and tried to touch me but I told him he must leave me alone as I am married,” she said.
She believed the harassment would stop, but the officer allegedly again harassed the constable while taking her home after another operation in July.
“I tried to tell him I would make my own way home, but he said I had to come with him. We were driving on the R21 when he started touching me and telling me he wanted to kiss me.
“I tried to tell him to stop, but he wouldn’t. He touched me all over. I kept on telling him to stop, but he wouldn’t. I was afraid because it was late and we were on the R21 with no one else around.
“I thought if I fought him he would dump me out of the car.”
Allegedly instructed the next day to come to work wearing a skirt, the constable laid a complaint with the Sunnyside Crime Prevention Unit commander before going to Mbele.
“I thought because they are women they would help me, but nothing has happened. I am so angry. Nobody seems interested in what this man is doing. It is as though they don’t care,” she said.
She said she had decided to lay a criminal charge after no action appeared to be taken.
“When nothing was done I went to Brooklyn police station and opened a case of indecent assault and sexual harassment,” she said.
Matlala, speaking about his alleged harassment, said he was arrested after making an enquiry into the case’s progress.
“When I asked for the case number of the case I was being arrested in connection with, the arresting officers could not give me one.
“I discovered this only after I was placed in the cells. A docket was opened and then it was in connection with a malicious damage to property case in which I am the complainant. I was eventually released and the ‘charge’ against me was withdrawn.
“This is intimidation and clear abuse of power. The officer involved is trying everything in his power to have the case against him withdrawn,” he said.
Both the officer who has been charged and Mbele declined to comment when approached.
Provincial police spokesman Colonel Lungelo Dlamini confirmed a case of indecent assault and sexual harassment had been opened.
“An internal investigation is also under way,” he said.
Asked if the officer had been suspended or arrested, Dlamini said: “A person cannot simply be suspended on allegations.” - Pretoria News