The Voorlopertjie has laid a charge of intimidation against a cop after he allegedly swore at her during a klopse road march.
Daily Voice columnist Moeshfieka Botha claims the officer drove through a procession of the Good Hope Entertainers in Wale Street in Bo-Kaap on Sunday night, “ruining a perfectly peaceful march”.
She says the cops in the patrol van, with sirens blaring and blue lights flashing, didn’t spare a thought for the 200 or so men, women and children as it ploughed through them.
Luckily no one was injured in the incident which took place just after 9pm.
“They just came driving straight through the minstrels. No respect for what was happening, no regard for the safety of the children among the adults and, above all, they did not belong there in the first place,” says Moeshfieka.
“Now please, I may be many things — but at 1.5m tall, 55kg and in a hijab — you can hardly mistake me for a violent gangster. So when I ask the policeman for his name, so that I can take this matter further — he says to me F*** OFF!”
And after she told him she had his picture, and would report him, he got out of the van.
“ Klim meneer mos soema uit die van, en kom vir my! But that klopse crowd descended on him so quickly, that he quickly jumped back into the van, but not without saying, ‘ Die is mal n**iers. Hulle gaan nou sien’,” she says.
Cops accused on intimidation
Moeshfieka says she went to lay a charge at Cape Town Central police station.
“He just sat there all quiet, like he did not just swear at me on camera. Major General Jeremy Vearey said he would look into this himself. You just don’t do this to people, and simply walk away. We have videos and pics,” she adds.
She adds that the shift commander, a Captain James, said the officers “were not supposed to be at that location in the first place”.
Jacky Poking of the Bo-Kaap Civic and Ratepayers Association said they received no complaints from residents about the march.
“There had been an agreement that as exams were on and kids were studying, there would be a mutual respect, but nobody in our neighbourhood had a problem on Sunday and were quite shocked at the police and their actions,” says Poking.
Police spokesperson Captain FC van Wyk confirms that a case of intimidation was registered. “The case docket will be transferred to IPID [Independent Police Investigative Directorate] for further investigation.”