Pretoria - Tshwane metro police department spokesman Senior Superintendent Isaac Mahamba allegedly beat up his girlfriend after she caught him in bed with another woman.
Both have since laid charges against each other with the police. The girlfriend opened a case of assault and Mahamba had her charged for malicious damage to property.
The high-ranking officer is now at the wrong end of a police investigation as a result of the incident at his Pretoria North home early last Monday morning.
Mahamba opted not to comment in his personal capacity, and referred , the Pretoria News, to the City of Tshwane.
Spokesman Selby Bokaba could neither confirm nor deny the allegations.
Josephine Mphaka claimed Mahamba assaulted her after she had walked in on him while he was lying in bed with another woman.
“He jumped off the bed and slammed me against the wall, and I almost collapsed from the pain to my shoulder,” Mphaka said.
The woman said she tried to confront Mahamba on his “cheating” ways, but he threw himself at her and pushed her towards the bedroom door and into the lounge.
“He hit me, handled me roughly and kicked me after I fell down on my face,” she claimed.
All the while he was swearing at her and accusing her of breaking into the house, she added.
“He asked how I gained access, yet he knew I had a key because I lived there.”
Mphaka said she and Mahamba have lived together for a year in his home in a secure estate that has stringent access control.
“I got through the entrance because I’m a tenant, and he knew that, but he had to prove a point to the woman he was with by disputing this,” she said.
Mphaka said that when her father fell ill, she went home to Temba for a while to help her older sister to deal with the visitors who needed to see him in hospital.
By then she suspected her boyfriend might be involved with other women. She confronted him but didn’t believe his denials.
“I followed my instinct when deciding to go home at midnight that evening. I wanted to walk away with enough evidence, and I found it.”
The bruises were still fresh and Mphaka was visibly shaken and in pain when she spoke to a reporter.
She told of being chased around the lounge and kitchen by Mahamba. He then allegedly proceeded to throw her belongings onto the lawn in the presence of police officers, who arrived while the altercation was raging.
Mphaka opened a case of assault with Pretoria North police station, after which Mahamba laid charges of malicious damage to property against her.
Bokaba declined to comment on the matter on behalf of the policeman, saying it involved his colleague’s love life. He added the incident was a private matter whose details the employer wasn’t privy to.
“However, we will have to check whether his conduct in his private space does in any way affect his position as a senior officer of the department,” he said.
Bokaba said he wasn’t clear on on what the rules stated about the allegations against Mahamba.
Pretoria News
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