Durban - Tensions over the rounding up and dumping of vagrants is claimed to be behind a senior officer allegedly stabbing a constable with a pen on Thursday.
About 100 metro police officers gathered outside the Albert Park station this morning, demanding management address them over the alleged incident.
SA Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) deputy chairman for the eThekwini region, Lindani Sicwala, said members were not on strike but merely wanted management to reassure them of their safety.
“If a shop steward can be stabbed inside the union office at the station, how unsafe are we as ordinary members?”
This follows the injury to Constable Mxolisi Dlamini, allegedly after challenging a senior officer’s instructions to round up vagrants and dump them in outlying areas.
Dlamini, 28, who was treated after the alleged attack on Thursday, said there had been bad blood between him and the senior officer over the “illegal” practice of collecting and transporting vagrants to areas such as eMkhomazi.
Dlamini, also a Samwu shop steward, told the Daily News on Thursday that he had often voiced his objection to the practice with the officer.
A captain at the station, who spoke to the Daily News on condition of anonymity, corroborated this, saying many of them were alarmed and concerned by the senior officer’s instructions. He said the officer had instructed policemen to pick up vagrants, especially those living in the so-called Whoonga Park and dump them in other municipalities.
“As metro police, we are supposed to arrest people for offences like loitering or vagrancy. Our position does not give us the right to take and dump them, we have to enforce the law and bylaws, what he was ordering was illegal,” said the captain.
He said the officer’s actions had caused concern, not only with the union, but other officers as well.
“The problem we have at this station is that some members of management feel they have power to do whatever they want, we can’t work like that. There has to be respect for everyone’s rights.”
Metro police spokesman, Superintendent Eugene Msomi, confirmed the stabbing incident but played it down, saying: “From our understanding, obviously the injuries are not that serious.”
However, an internal probe was under way which would determine if any criminal charge would be laid, he said.
Msomi said they did not have any written statements at the time and were waiting for the senior officer in charge of the investigation to produce the report on the incident, including a motive.
Dlamini told the Daily News that the officer had followed him into the union office at the station and closed the door.
“I thought he wanted to talk but he just said he was going to fix me, saying who do I think I am and don’t I know how things work at metro police.”
He claimed the officer then lunged at him and punched him in the face.
“I tried to hold back his hands to avoid another blow, then he stabbed me in the chest with a pen. I screamed for help, but he ran out.”
A bleeding Dlamini walked to his supervisor’s office clutching his chest. He was taken to St Augustine’s Hospital for treatment.
He said the argument was over dumping of vagrants.
“We had been at loggerheads because of this. It’s illegal and I told him so.”
Dlamini said as a custodian of the law, he could not stand back and watch this happen.
As a shop steward, he was concerned for his colleagues, as he knew that if this came to a head, it was them who would face consequences and not management, who issued the instructions.
Dlamini claimed that he had been threatened earlier on Thursday by the senior officer during a chance meeting in the CBD.
It is not clear if the alleged attacker returned to work on Thursday after leaving following the incident.
Samwu deputy secretary, Pretty Shange, said the incident was totally unacceptable.
Shange said relations between union and management had long been tense, but it could not be a “sweetheart union”.
“They do not want to be questioned about anything that needs union attention,” Shange said.
She said the union would be meeting members on Friday to receive a mandate on what to do about the incident and would be watching the investigation closely, especially after hearing that Dlamini would be hauled before a disciplinary hearing with the intention of dismissing him.
“He is the victim here, now his job is in jeopardy.
“They cannot flout the law and process because the victim is a junior officer,” said Shange.
Msomi acknowledged that there had been complaints regarding the dumping of vagrants. “We try our best to reconnect some vagrants with the families.
“However, we totally disagree with the notion that it’s the policy of the department.”
Msomi could not confirm any tensions arising in the station around the dumping of vagrants.
Asked to comment on alleged tense relations between management and Samwu, he said: “That is a different issue and I am not a position to comment on that.”
Daily News