A team of Ceres police officers face an internal probe after video footage of them assaulting unarmed civilians went viral.
Watch: Ceres police in hot waters for assaulting civilians
The 30-second clip starts off with one of the officers, a female constable, seen pouncing towards a person standing on the side of the police van not seen by the camera.
Then, suddenly, her partner is seen grabbing a sjambok from the waist of his colleague — who was busy patting down an unidentified man — and launching into an attack on a civilian who, in no way, posed a threat to the officer.
The video ends abruptly. At this time, it remains unclear what condition the victims of this assault is.
The video has since gone viral and you can watch the callous actions of the Ceres police officers below:
This happened in Worcester, Western Cape…Cops from Ceres @SAPoliceService pic.twitter.com/6kgCJsZSg4
— Yusuf Abramjee (@Abramjee) January 20, 2021
Internal probe launched: ‘What happened prior to the recording?’
The video made its rounds and reached Worcester’s SAPS cluster commander Major-General Nomthetheleli Mene.
The major-general condemned the actions of the officers and made it clear that this behaviour is not representative of the police’s role in society.
“The SAPS in the Western Cape wishes to place on record that the beating up and manhandling of individuals and/or suspects is against departmental directives and prescripts that govern the handling of persons by police officials,” he said.
The three officers remain unidentified and MG Mene would not be baited into revealing if any punitive measures are in place to deal with the unacceptable behaviour.
“The officers in the video have been identified and interviewed as part of the investigation. The investigation is ongoing and is expected to shed light on what had happened prior to the recording commencing,” Mene added.