By Anna Louw
Ekurhuleni metro police chief Robert McBride swore at police officers and threatened to have them shot, a senior SAPS officer has said in his official report.
It was compiled and signed by Boksburg's acting station commissioner, Superintendent M Pudikabekwa.
The report claims to record what transpired at a petrol station in Boksburg on Wednesday when McBride walked up to him and a colleague, a Captain Van der Merwe.
Pudikabekwa said they were sitting in their unmarked state vehicle when McBride pulled the door open and said: "Who the f*** are you? Show me your f****** ID card and get out of the car."
He then pulled the keys out of the ignition and continued swearing at the police officers.
Van der Merwe asked Mcbride who he was, to which he replied: "It does not matter who the f*** I am."
The metro police boss had arrived at the petrol station where suspended metro police officer Senior Superintendent Patrick Johnston, 48, was pulled over for allegedly driving a car with tinted windows.
Metro cops said that was a violation of the Road Traffic Ordinance.
After Johnston called Inspector Stanley Segathevan, his fellow suspended colleague joined him.
Later, both men were arrested.
However, advocate Henk Strydom, Boksburg's senior public prosecutor, yesterday declined to prosecute Johnston and Segathevan because of "insufficient evidence and a case totally without merit".
Today, Johnston and Segathevan - who fear for their lives - were to seek an urgent interdict in the Johannesburg High Court to protect them from McBride and the Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department.
In his report, Pudikabekwa said he received a call about a problem regarding a metro police officer (Johnston) at the filling station.
He mobilised members of the Boksburg SAPS Task Force and sent them to the scene of the supposed crime, where they found about 10 metro police cars.
Metro cops told Pudikabekwa that Johnston's windows were too dark and that the car was being impounded.
The car's licence disc had been removed and a fine issued.
Pudikabekwa noted that the metro officials were "arrogant".
The report said McBride instructed his members "to shoot all the SAPS members (including members of the Task Force) in the head if they touched their firearms".
The police were standing near gas tanks, and McBride also instructed his men to shoot the gas tanks.
He insulted SAPS members, including high-ranking officers, by calling them "baboons and pieces of s***".
Later, when Pudikabekwa and Van der Merwe were about to leave, they were parked in by a private vehicle, from which McBride alighted.
He swore at the officers and took away the car keys.
Pudikabekwa said that when he called the commissioner of police (whom he did not name in the report), McBride "suddenly" shook hands with him and Van der Merwe, telling them they "are colleagues and that we should talk".
He then returned their keys.
Johnston and Segathevan were part of a "clean up" team who responded to McBride's December 21 crash at which witnesses said the Ekurhuleni metro police chief was drunk.
Both officers, as well as colleague Ithumeleng Koko, with between 11 and 16 years' service, later had a fallout with McBride and gave damning statements to the police.
- The Star was unable to contact McBride for comment on Thursday, despite trying several times.
However, interviewed on 702 Talk Radio on Thursday night, he said it was "necessary" for him to give instructions at the filling station because the police were more senior to his own metro police.
He also claimed that SAPS members - whom he accused of being stroppy - had apologised to him before they left the scene.
McBride also said the case against Johnston and Segathevan had been postponed for further investigation.