Gauteng Provincial Police have launched an urgent investigation after a video clip showing police forcefully taking a young girl into custody has surfaced.

Colonel Noxolo Kweza of the Gauteng Police said in a statement that management have noted with concern a video clip circulating on various social media platforms that show police members manhandling a school girl.

The video shows the young woman struggling while a police member tries to pull her by her foot. Then she is grabbed and forced into the back of the vehicle while the member gets in with her. The car then pulls away.

One post on social media alleged that the girl was on her way to the taxi rank when she was apprehended. It was also alleged that she was drugged and couldn’t remember what had happened, although the police statement says otherwise.

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The statement confirmed that the 18-year-old school girl was taken to the Krugersdorp Police Station and released the same day into her mothers custody, unharmed.

The members captured on the video have been identified and the departmental investigation is underway. We can confirm that the vehicle captured on the video is a state vehicle, and that the members were on duty conducting routine patrols at the time of the incident.”

Acting Provincial Commissioner, Major General Daniel Mthombeni has sanctioned an urgent departmental investigation to establish the circumstances surrounding the incident that allegedly happened in Krugersdorp CBD on Tuesday, August 3, the statement explained.

“Whatever measures that will be taken will be guided by the outcome of the investigation.”

Mthombeni said the police would take a zero-tolerance approach to gender-based violence, and hence the call for the departmental investigation will be treated with the necessary sensitivity and urgency.