Johannesburg - Douglasdale police are investigating a case in which officers allegedly refused to help a restaurant manager who wanted to lay a charge against their colleague.
The manager took a video of the incident, which was posted online this week by a user who goes by the name of Pmaros.
The amateurish video, which was posted on LiveLeak.com on Monday, shows the officers refusing to open the case when the manager would not identify himself at the police station.
According to LiveLeak, a customer at the restaurant refused to settle a R175 bill and the manager called the police. When two Douglasdale police officers arrived, they allegedly told him he could not open a case because R175 was too small an amount for the work that needed to be done.
The manager then asked the officers to identity themselves, but only one of them did. The unidentified officer allegedly said the manager was drunk, despite his offering to take a Breathalyser test.
When the manager went to the police station to try to open a case against the officers, the captain on duty refused to provide the identity of the unidentified officer. He also refused to identify himself.
On the video, the manager is heard questioning why his own identity is needed in the matter, but the police fail to provide a substantial reason.
Justice Project South Africa chairman Howard Dembovsky said: “The Douglasdale police station is the most appalling police station, in my view. The station should be shut down and all the officers fired.”
The conduct of Douglasdale police officers was also condemned by crime-fighting organisation eBlockwatch founder Andre Snyman.
“This is very disheartening for the dedicated police officers and the Community Policing Forum members who work thanklessly to try to lift the standard of policing at the police stations,” he said in the local newspaper, the Fourways Review.
Douglasdale police station was recently in the news when Tactical Response Team members were dispatched there to disarm some of its officers.
This was after a stand-off between the officers and the station commander, Brigadier Leon Kruger.
The officers accused Kruger and a Colonel Swart of using the k-word and a female colonel of calling black female officers “b***h whores”.
The officers allegedly stormed Kruger’s office, demanding he stay at home until their grievances had been addressed.
He in turn opened charges of intimidation.