Cape constable to appear in court for allegedly raping shoplifter

A Nyanga police officer is set to appear before the Wynberg magistrates Court on Tuesday following rape allegations of a victim that shoplifted.

The constable has since been suspended, after he raped a 29-year-old in the back of an SAPS van.

Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) said that on Thursday, the male victim was at a Jet store at Nyanga’s Junction shopping mall where security suspected that he wanted to steal clothing.

Police were called and the constable is alleged to have taken the suspect to a gravel road before making him watch porn on a cellphone and sodomising him.

"The arrest follows an Ipid (investigation into allegations that the police constable had raped the man who was in a police van. Due to the seriousness of the allegations levelled against the 31-year-old police constable, an expeditious internal disciplinary process into the fitness of the member to be in the SAPS has been initiated.

Western Cape provincial commissioner Lieutenant General Thembisile Patekile has condemned the incident.

“It is incidents like these that adversely impact the relationship between police and communities. That is why it is crucial the investigations undertaken by Ipid get to the bottom of this. Police are expected to be protectors of communities."

The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Police, Tina Joemat-Pettersson, shared patekile’s sentiments and have called for the prosecution of the alleged rapist.

 “The relationship between the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the community at large is harmed by such abuses of power by some rotten elements within SAPS. We therefore believe that the suspect must be prosecuted to set an example to other police officers inclined to perpetrate such heinous acts.’’

 

Done By: Mitchum George