Wrong assumption by divers?
● A road-rage incident involving two navy divers and a senior officer has left the leading seamen in deep water at the military court in Simon’s Town.
Phillip de Bruyn, 28, and Brendan Sharp, 24, have been charged with insubordination after an altercation with Maj Alan Assumption in May last year.
In his affidavit, Assumption said he was driving to work at about 7am when he saw De Bruyn waving at him from his vehicle. “He was pointing to his eyes and pointing at me while we were both stationary at the traffic light,” the affidavit said.
“I … asked him what he was saying
… De Bruyn [told] me that ‘jy moet reg ry’
[you must drive properly]. I then asked him who he was referring to as
‘jy’, as he could see what my rank was, to which he replied
‘jou p***, man ’ and the car … sped off.”
Assumption said he followed and stopped behind the seamen when they next came to a halt.
“They both exited the vehicle in an aggressive manner so as to fight me. I then proceeded to ask … De Bruyn and Sharp for their military identity cards [and] they both refused.”
De Bruyn had accused him of being “crazy” for asking to see his identity card, adding: “You must still be drunk … look how red your eyes are.” Assumption said in the affidavit that he had had eye surgery a month earlier.
Assumption said when he was about to leave, De Bruyn “challenged me to come out of the car and sort the matter out”.
The seamen will appear before the court on August 25 and Sharp’s lawyer, Barry Varkel, dismissed the case as baseless.
“My client feels the complaint … is a cynical fabrication by a person who was clearly in the wrong and who himself drove recklessly like an out-of-control speedboat without a rudder on a public road,” said Varkel.