Thando Frans, of White City in Nyanga, has accused police of assaulting him so violently they broke his arm.
While the matter is under investigation, provincial police had told Vukani they could only be able to comment after the cases registered by each of the parties involved had been investigated.
However, said police spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Andre Traut police brutality condemned in the strongest possible terms and “we will not hesitate to take action actions offenders”.
According to Mr Frans, the incident happened on Wednesday January 30 after he had become angry at police officers who had allegedly sped past a school.
He said the two officers who drove past Ilinge Primary School had stopped after hearing him voice his upset and bundled him into the back of the van.
“They were driving recklessly in front of the school. My mistake was to ask them why are they driving like that when school children were all over. One told me I am not a traffic officer. They started hurling all sorts of insults on me. They drove away but turned back.
“I thought they came to search me, and I lifted my hands. But I was wrong. That’s when they started assaulting me. After that, they threw me into the back of the van,” he told Vukani.
Mr Frans claimed the police then drove around with him in the back of the van for hours and eventually stopping at the Philippi railway police station.
Later, they took him to KTC Community Health Centre. By this time his family had already started looking for him.
“At the day centre they asked the official who was there to examine whether I am ‘right upstairs’,” he said, referring to police having questioned his mental health. Still reeling from the attack on her son, Mr Frans’ mother Nontsikelelo Koyana said she had gone to look for him at Nyanga police station after hearing he had been arrested. But eventually she was told that her son was being held at Philippi. “I had to go up and down looking for him. When I got to Philippi they still sent me back to Nyanga only to find out they were at the KTC Community Health Centre.”
