Durban - A taxi driver who refused, and was supported by his passengers, to get out of his car as one of the officers stood in front of it pointing what looks like an AK47, captured the incident on his cellphone and is now afraid for his life.
In a post (written in isiZulu), the taxi driver detailed what happened and said that the incident occurred near the Wilge Plaza in Villiers on the N3 at the weekend.
“When I had paid at the tollgate, I saw police parked after it. I was driving in between a truck and a light motor vehicle. There are CCTV cameras, and I will request all of that (footage). The police officer wanted to stop me but he had emerged from the side where the truck was next to me and tried to stop me but I couldn’t because I was in between other cars and I was in the middle of the road.”
He added that it was dusk and the officer was also not wearing a reflector vest to be clearly visible to motorists.
The driver said that he went on with his journey and about 5km into it he saw the police van and the same officer who tried to stop him was seated in the passenger seat.
“He was carrying a big gun and he had his upper body out (side) with the gun pointed towards us; this scared everyone in the car, they were crying laying on the floor hiding from the gun because he wanted to shoot me. It took a while for the shock to overcome me so I took out my phone and took a video.”
He said that he had decided to take a video because he was convinced the officer would shoot and he wanted to have proof should anything happen.
In the video when the driver has pulled over the passenger side door of the police vehicle flings open and an officer carrying what looks like an AK47 walks straight towards the driver’s side banging on the door and motioning with his hand for the driver to alight.
He then goes and stands in front of the taxi pointing the gun at the driver and passengers are heard screaming what he was doing was illegal, while others closed the windows and asked that the door should not the opened.
Other officers with the one carrying the gun are seen wearing reflector vests.
“Close the door, take a video, they can’t do that nonsense. Why is he pointing a gun at us? It's against the law,” commuters are heard screaming as the officers try to open the passenger door.
As the other officers walk around the taxi telling the driver to open it, the officer with the gun stands in front of the taxi with the firearm pointed at the driver.
When the driver finally gets out of the car, the officer with the gun grabs his arm, asking to search him pressing him on the bonnet of the car, this as another officer is heard saying “don’t hit him”.
The phone is smacked from the driver’s hand.
The driver in his post explained that the reason he had refused to open the door and get out of the car was that he was afraid that the officers seemed like they would hurt them.
He explains that what's not seen on the footage is backup that was called to the scene where he says other officers calmly wanted to find out what was the problem.
“I explained to them but that officer (the one with the gun) was still fighting with me. The other officers called me aside along with one of my passengers who happens to be a traffic officer in Joburg. They apologised but it was the other officers apologising not the one who pointed a gun at us, he couldn’t humble himself. It was his colleagues who saw the damage that had been done and apologised. After that, we continued on our journey.”
Daily News