A former South African officer Riana Stander has enlisted the help of Afriforum to press crimen injuria charges against a police general, and it seems, after six years, she may get her day in court.
Who is Riana Stander?
Stander, according to an IOL News report, was relieved of her duties as an officer in November 2016 after she was declared medically unfit.
The declaration came after Stander was allegedly blasted by the unnamed general in front of an audience of 450 police recruits at an academy in Oudtshoorn, Western Cape.
From what we understand, Stander was part of a cohort of police officers asked to queue on stage and, somewhere along the way, the general allegedly made snide remarks about the 53-year-old’s outfit, weight and skin colour.
While it is unclear what exactly the SAPS general may have said that caused Stander anguish and a great deal of distress, it is alleged that it was along the lines of “the stage was too white.”
Feeling offended, Stander was the only person on the stage who took the matter to heart and filed a complaint at the police station.
Her persistence in seeing the matter dealt with paid off when SAPS launched an internal probe and determined that the general’s comments were, in fact, racist and she was dismissed in 2019.
A year later, however, the dismissal was reversed after the general appealed the decision at a SAPS arbitration committee.
Now, Stander, working in tandem with AfriForum, is pushing for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to take the crime injuria charges to court.
However, in this case, too, not much movement is made to grant Stander an opportunity to seek justice.
“The SAPS, for example, dragged its feet in providing the docket to the complainant, and the prosecution’s refusal and reluctance to issue a nolle prosequi certificate is telling. We will continue to monitor the case to ensure that a prosecution does indeed ensue,” AfriForum’s Advocate Phyllis Vorster said.