Some of the eight VIP Protection Unit officers at the Sandton Police Station on Sunday, 22 July 2023, where they were charged with assaulting four people on the N1 in Johannesburg. (Photo: Leon Sadiki) Assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm, malicious damage to property and the illegal pointing of a firearm are the charges being brought against eight VIP police officers who were allegedly involved in a brutal assault on motorists on the N1 in Gauteng earlier in July.
Robbie Raburabu, spokesperson for the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid), set out these charges and said the eight will be in court on Monday 24 July 2023.
Ipid started its investigation on 4 July.
Raburabu added that the victims of the assault were traced to the South African National Defence Force headquarters in Thaba Tshwane where they are trainers.
“The suspects will hand themselves over tonight at the police station where they will be processed in preparation for their appearance at the Randburg Magistrate's Court tomorrow,” Raburabu said.
The eight police officers have been suspended in terms of SAPS disciplinary regulations since Monday, 10 July, SAPS national spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe said previously.
The officers are members of the SAPS Protection and Security Services programme attached to the protection detail of Deputy President Paul Mashatile.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Untitled-1-8.jpg "iStock | Deputy President Paul Mashatile. (Photo: Gallo Images / Beeld / Deaan Vivier)")
They were caught on video by a motorist who filmed the attack on three people on the N1 highway between Johannesburg and Pretoria.
The video, which grabbed the public’s attention on social media, shows how the police officers, driving a black BMW, stopped on the N1, dragged a man to the edge of the road and began punching and kicking him.
The video also shows another man who appears to be lying unconscious on the side of the road.
Make these thugs famous! Allegedly cops of VIP protection unit. This is an atrocity. This is what happens when the police is used as an iron fist for the state. Apparently in Johannesburg today. What will happen to them @SAPoliceService? Whatever happened to serve and protect?! pic.twitter.com/mkImtSNpmw
— Ian Cameron (@IanCameron23) July 3, 2023
Shortly after the incident, Mashatile’s office confirmed that the suspect belonged to his protection unit but said he was not in the vehicle.
After the incident, there were several calls for the VIP Protection Units to be reined in.
The officers will be named once they have appeared in court. DM
This article was updated to include an image of some of the suspects handing themselves in on Sunday night ahead of their court appearance on Monday.