Middelburg’s traffic officers have been a subject of controversy over the last couple of years, as several videos and accusations of brutality surfaced against them.

Things escalated to such an extent that the Steve Tshwete Municipality sent their traffic police for anger management classes last year.

After the surfacing of a most recent video, it seems that they should rather have been sent for training with Usain Bolt. This after a video showing a man making a beeline for it after being stopped by a traffic officer.

In the video a man and a traffic officer are engaged in a scuffle next to the road. The man later gets out of his car and convince the traffic officer to let go of him before he suddenly makes a run for it, leaving his car, and the traffic officer behind.

Also read: Traffic warden calls assault victim ‘deserving pig’

The circumstances of the video, which first surfaced on Facebook and was later circulated on WhatsApp, are not known yet.

Also read: Pepper spray, threats as traffic officers go on strike

Gerhard Rheeder is working on a piece about the story behind the video which will appear in the print edition of Friday.

See a previous incident where residents clashed with traffic officers and police here: