Prominent DA man faces suspension after alleged assault on homeless man

The DA is in the process of suspending a member of the party who was arrested for allegedly assaulting a homeless man in Vredendal, in the Western Cape.

Wilfred Stephan was arrested and charged with assault with the intent to cause grievous bodily harm on Wednesday.

He appeared in the Vredendal Magistrate’s Court on Thursday and was released on R1,000 bail. The case was postponed to January 25 2019.

Western Cape MEC for local government Anton Bredell visited the victim, Piet van Zyl, who was taken to hospital.

“The DA is busy with the process of suspension. I visited Piet van Zyl and what happened to him was wrong,” Bredell told TimesLIVE on Friday.

“It is important that we support him because he lives on the street,” he added.

Netwerk24 reported that Stephan was a prominent resident in Vredendal who was married to the former DA mayor of Matzikama municipality, Rhenda Stephan.

“We need to talk about these violent attacks against other human beings. We are just coming out 16 days of activism,” added Bredell.

Lobby group AfriForum suspended a branch member after the assault, but declined to confirm whether it was Stephan.

Kallie Kriel, AfriForum’s CEO, said the organisation condemned “all forms of violence and the violation of a person’s dignity, irrespective of who the victim or perpetrator is”.

“Any person who makes themselves guilty of any form of violence, or the violation of someone’s dignity, must carry the consequences.”

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