Journalist claims police assault

Jonisayi Maromo

A Pretoria-based journalist claims he was severely assaulted in front of his wife and young children in his house at about 2am yesterday, after members of the SA Police Service and Tshwane Metro Police Department (TMPD) broke down a palisade wall, security gates and doors.

Frans Sello Machate left the National Press Club discussion event in Centurion on Tuesday and headed home in Equestria, east of Pretoria. He said on his way home, he noticed a unmarked Ford Figo following him.

“It was after midnight and I noticed that whenever I turned, that car also turned. I drove past my house, and made a turn. The car was no longer following me and I drove into my yard,” Machate said after he was released from police holding cells.

“As I was preparing to sleep, my wife and I heard noises outside our house. Those people started breaking the precast wall, the security gates and the doors. I immediately called the Saps’ 10111 number to seek help.

“I brought all my children into my bedroom. About 15 police officers stormed my bedroom after kicking down the bedroom door. Inside, they quickly handcuffed me from behind and started ransacking the house. They were pointing firearms at us and my wife, children were crying.”

He said his office space in the house was also ransacked, with mobile phones and video cameras “thrown around”. “When they took me outside the house, a member of the Tshwane Metro Police hit my head with his metal torch and I started bleeding.

“My scalp broke and they had to take me to [Steve Biko Academic] hospital so that I get stitched. We left the hospital at around 5am. They’ve charged me and released me.”

Machate said he was charged with reckless and negligent driving, drunk driving and assaulting a police officer.

“How can I assault someone when I was handcuffed. Actually, when we got to this Silverton police station, they put me in a room. In there, four police officers started kicking me all over [the body] while I was handcuffed,” he said.

Sources close to the case said a charge of attempted murder had also been added to the docket, as police officers claim Machate tried to kill them by swerving his car as they were trying to stop him on the road.

Machate’s wife, Tintswalo, said: “The kids are traumatised because everything happened in front of them.” She said she was also roughed up by the police.

TMPD’s spokesperson Senior Superintendent Isaac Mahamba, who is handling the matter on behalf of Saps and TMPD, said the matter of Machate’s complaint, and the police officers’ claims would be investigated. – ANA