Cape Town – The African National Congress must immediately suspend Beaufort West mayor Truman Prince and stop “protecting criminal conduct”, the Democratic Alliance said on Sunday.
DA national spokeswoman Phumzile van Damme said the DA could confirm that charges recently laid against Prince were for the assault of a female traffic police officer.
“The DA has also learned that video footage of the incident exists and that it will be used against mayor Prince in criminal proceedings. A doctor’s report of the bad injuries sustained by the female officer will also serve as evidence during the criminal proceedings.”
Read: I am innocent, says Prince
Assault charges – for which the DA had the case number – were laid against Prince for allegedly assaulting the female uniformed officer in Leeu Gamka, near Beaufort West in the Western Cape, after having been pulled over for speeding.
“Mr Prince had allegedly been travelling in a vehicle registered to Safa [SA Football Association], on whose executive board he serves,” Van Damme said.
This was but the latest in a string of scandals in which Prince was central:
* In 2005 he was suspended as municipal manager and member of the ANC after a television program revealed how he approached teenage girls for sex. The suspension was later lifted;
* In 2010 he was pulled off the road by a traffic officer for reckless driving. He was later found guilty of drunk driving and fined “a meager” R2000. His license was not revoked;
* In 2014 he was again investigated for drunk driving after crashing into a truck in Donkin Road in Beaufort West. So far nothing had come of this investigation, despite video footage of the incident being in the public domain; and
* Last week, the DA laid a charge of corruption against Prince for blatantly attempting to bend procurement processes so that some of the proceeds could go toward the ANC’s election campaign in Beaufort West.
Read: Truman: a prince among men
“It is shameful that an individual with such a record of criminality could be in a position of public office, not to mention the ANC executive mayor of a large town,” Van Damme said.
If the ANC in the Western Cape was truly serious about cleaning up its tattered image of criminality, it would immediately suspend Truman Prince. If not, they would be seen to support his “scandalous and criminal behaviour”.
This latest incident where an officer, a female officer at that, was allegedly assaulted by the ANC executive mayor, could not, and would not be overlooked.
“The ANC cannot claim to be serious about women’s rights when it houses serious abusers of women’s rights. When Marius Fransman was recently charged with sexual assault of a female employee it took the ANC nearly a month before acting against him. This cannot happen again.
“The ANC in Luthuli House must immediately suspend Truman Prince and stop protecting criminal conduct,” Van Damme said.
African News Agency