'Drunken' police chief involved in car crash

By Tarryn Le Chat
23 December 2006

Ekurhuleni Mayor Duma Nkosi has offered his full support for his chief of police, Robert McBride, following allegations that McBride had been drinking when he was involved in a car crash on Thursday.

At a long awaited press conference yesterday – 20 hours after McBride’s car rolled near Pretoria – Nkosi said it “disturbed” him that witnesses at the scene had claimed McBride had been drinking.

When the accident happened, said Nkosi, McBride was coming from a year-end function for the Ekurhuleni Metro Police. He left the party to respond to an emergency call from a ward councillor concerning reactions by the Eden Park community over harassment and eviction issues.

Angry witnesses claim McBride was so incoherent he could not even tell them whether he was driving alone.

Fellow police officers arrived on the scene. The officers helped McBride to the Golf. At that point McBride was allegedly asking about his gun, which apparently was in the car.

It was alleged by the witnesses that the officers on the scene “assaulted” them for wanting to take pictures.