CAPE TOWN: A Nyanga police officer has been suspended, pending his appearance in court on Tuesday on charges that he raped a 29-year-old in the back of an SAPS van.
The Western Cape SAPS said on Monday morning that management had summarily suspended the police officer who was charged over the weekend.
“The arrest follows an Ipid (Independent Police Investigative Directorate) 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 views the allegations levelled against the member in a serious light,” the SAPS said.
Patekile said: “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.”
Ipid said that on Thursday, December 2, 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.
Edited by Francesca Villette
Cape Times