Wierdabrug police brutality being investigated

A Rooihuiskraal resident this week claimed she got wrongly locked up for being “drunk” in public when she wanted to report an attempted hijacking at the Wierdabrug police station on Friday evening.

In the process, Anja Pentz (41) said she was manhandled and sworn at by police officers before being locked in a small room.

The morning after, Pentz said she discovered that her phone had been damaged and money removed from her wallet, which had been confiscated by the officers the previous evening.

According to Pentz, she drove to the police station around 22:00 “after she had just been the victim of an attempted hijacking”.

Pentz said she visited a friend around 22:00 on Friday evening to assist with puppies.

“On my way home I got onto the highway from Fountains Circle towards Centurion, a silver Golf or Polo tried to push me off the road.”

“I immediately realised they were trying to hijack me. I took the Jean off-ramp and as I got to the red traffic lights, I slowed down.”

Pentz said at that moment a man jumped out of the car and came running towards her car. She said she sped over the red lights and drove to the Wierdabrug police station.

“There were six police officers behind the desk, of which one was assisting someone else. I greeted the other five officers who remained sitting behind the counter, and requested whether anyone of them could perhaps get up to assist me,” Pentz said.

One of the officers reportedly replied that they don’t need to get up to help Pentz.

She said she took out her phone and said that if that was the case, she would have to record it.

“Another officer then stormed up to me and grabbed my phone from me asking in foul language what I thought I was doing, even before I could start recording the incident,” Pentz claimed.

“He grabbed me behind my neck and dragged me to the back of the counter and accused me of being drunk.”

Pentz said she came to the station because she “needed help” and suggested that the officer test her alcohol level.

“Then he wanted to handcuff me,” Pentz said, “and I asked him why he wanted to handcuff me if I was not resisting arrest”.

“The officer replied once again in foul language and asked me if I think I’m clever.”

“He grabbed me by my arm and took me to the end of a passage. He unlocked the last door, first a steel door and then a gate.”

“A female officer accompanied us and demanded that I hand over my belongings,” said Pentz, “which were my wallet, cellphone and car keys”.

Pentz said she handed it over without going through the contents with them and that the male officer then threatened her in foul language that he will “teach her a lesson”.

“I was locked up in a square space with raw cement and no roof. The paint on the wall was dark grey or blue. It was walled off with a kind of iron bars and mesh. It was cold and there was no blanket or toilet to use.”

Pentz said two female officers then returned with a document she had to sign in respect of her belongings that she had handed it over.

“Instead, I wrote that no thumbprints and no alcohol test were taken, but they grabbed it from me before I could write ‘no rights read’,” Pentz said.

“It was before 04:00 when the female and male officer returned and took me back to the counter.”

The male officer allegedly informed Pentz that he was charging and fining her for appearing drunk in public and requested her occupation and residential address from her.

“They returned my belongings, however, I noticed that money from my wallet disappeared, about which I kept quiet as I thought my safety was more important then.

“The next morning,” Pentz said, “I learned my cellphone’s screen was cracked despite me having a screen protector on it. And the document the officer gave me read that I have to pay R300 as an admission of guilt or appear in court on 15 May.”

She has laid charges of assault, theft of money and malicious damage to property at the station.

Spokesperson for Wierdabrug police, Sergeant Divine Nkuna, confirmed a case was opened for the above charges, “however, I cannot confirm the incident as it was based on allegations by the complainant”.

Ndileka Cola of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate said the matter had not been reported to Ipid but the Directorate would “collect it and investigate.”

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