HELEN ZILLE’S GUARDS SNARL
‘Lock up your dogs, madam’
● Police guarding Western Cape premier Helen Zille’s home in Cape Town have complained of being terrorised by the former DA leader’s pet dogs, saying one officer was injured when she fled from a rottweiler.
According to documents seen by the Sunday Times, the 34-year-old woman constable hurt her knee and wrist in October last year when trying to evade the dog.
The officer had surgery as a result, the documents say. The Sunday Times understands she is still receiving therapy and taking medication.
Police union leaders said this week at least two other officers have had to take evasive action because of the premier’s dogs. In one instance, they say, an officer fired a warning shot to scare them off.
Mncedisi Mbolekwa, Western Cape provincial secretary of the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union, said the union would push the authorities to give Zille an ultimatum — either she gets rid of her dogs or the police withdraw their guards.
Mbolekwa said the incidents with the dogs had been reported to him. “I don’t know how far it has gone. It was reported to the authorities,” he said.
Zille said this week protection officers had been frightened of the dogs even though the dogs had not tried to attack them.
“Our dogs have never attacked anyone on these premises,” she said.
“On two occasions, when the dogs were being walked in the garden under supervision (although not on leashes), police personnel took fright.”
According to the documents seen by the Sunday Times, the injured officer was booked off work several times over the past year due to ankle and knee injuries and a “left wrist scaphoid fracture”.
Our dogs have never attacked anyone on these premises
Helen Zille
Western Cape premier
According to the documents the officer also complained of severe depression and anxiety arising from the dog attack, and is receiving psychological therapy.
The officer was briefly incapacitated, the documents say, and she has allegedly been struggling to get compensation from the police for some of her medical expenses. The officer herself declined to discuss the issue due to police curbs on contact with the media.
Zille said that on some occasions, it was the officers who had attacked her dogs. She said a policeman once took off his belt and beat a dog that had done “absolutely nothing” to him.
“My son was right there. We understood that the policeman may have been anxious about the proximity of the dog and so we let the incident pass, although it was upsetting,” said Zille.
In the case of the woman officer who was hurt, Zille said the dog had run towards her. She jumped off a small low wall while escaping the dog and fell badly.
“Unbeknown to me until this week, the constable had an extreme fear of dogs because of a dog bite as a child. She never raised this before,” said Zille.
The rottweiler has since died.
Zille said her family did everything possible to assist the injured officer whom Zille’s son took to a nearby hospital for X-rays.
She said she had herself been away from Cape Town at the time, but her husband had visited the officer in hospital.
The premier said she followed up and had been assured all the policewoman’s costs would be covered because she was injured on duty.
She said Popcru officials visited her to say that some police personnel were frightened of the dog and asked that the dogs not be allowed out without strict supervision.
“We agreed, because we understand that fear is rarely based on logic or objective reality.
“If people are pleasant to the dogs, they are loving back. That’s how they roll. They like to bound and play. But I equally understand that some people get anxious,” she said.
Zille met the injured officer at her office in Cape Town this week after the woman had approached the EFF for assistance.
Zille said the injured officer did not say what kind of assistance she needed from her.
“She left without asking for or saying anything except telling me about her fear of dogs, and additional graphic details of personal issues that I do not want to go into.” Zille said she had asked the policewoman to contact her should she need help.
Mbolekwa said his members were “scared of the dog, but we were told that Zille likes her dog and there is nothing she can do”.
He said the state was supposed to have taken responsibility for all the officer’s medical bills.
This was not negotiable because she was injured on duty.
He vowed to assist the officer get compensation, and said he would push for a full investigation.
Police minister Bheki Cele’s office did not respond to a request for comment.