Lavern De Vries
19 November 2008
Two Table View, Cape Town, police officers face a department investigation after they allegedly assaulted two women who, because they had been drinking, decided to walk home from a pub.
The women, who declined to be named for fear of victimisation, said they met friends for a girls' night at a local pub on Saturday, November 15.
They said they decided to walk home because they were drunk.
"While we were walking my friend, who has asthma, became a bit sick, so we stopped. Just then a police vehicle arrived and two officers came to ask what was wrong," said the 43-year-old woman.
She explained to them that they had been drinking and had chosen to walk home. She told them that if they wanted to help they could bundle them into the van and drive them home, she said.
"But they refused and said they would have to arrest us for being drunk in public. My friend protested and we argued with them, saying that we were being responsible by walking home and that they shouldn't arrest us. But then they grabbed us," the woman said.
The officers, whose names and ranks are not known to the pair, then allegedly dragged them down a gravel road to get them into the van as they screamed for them to let go.
"They tried to force us into the van but, because we were resisting, they sprayed us with pepper spray until we were coughing and our eyes were bulging. When we were shoved into the van my foot was hanging outside the door and they slammed the door to lock us in. They then sprayed us again while we were in the van."
The woman said her ankle was still swollen and bruised. A J88 form, used by doctors to indicate injuries in an assault case, stated that she and her friend had various bruises on their arms, legs and knees. Her ankle had a 12 x 7cm bruise. Two weeks later, it was still painful.
The woman said she appealed for medical assistance from the Table View station commissioner in light of the fact that the assault had allegedly been perpetrated by arresting officers from that station.
She said she was told that even if the bruises were inflicted while they were in police custody, the fact that they were released meant that they were no longer the police's responsibility.
Table View police spokesperson Inspector Elizabeth Munro confirmed that police were investigating the incident.
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