A video showing a member of the South African Police Service (SAPS) assaulting an unarmed civilian for using her phone to record has gone viral on social media, exposing the glaring inadequacies of our police force.
Based on reports by renowned crime reporter Yusuf Abramjee, the incident took place over the weekend at a busy interchange in Heidelberg, Gauteng.
Heidelberg SAPS officer assaults on-looker
The short clip shows how two women were engaged in a heated confrontation with the SAPS officers. It is not clear what the premise of the discussion was but one of the officers was visibly irate.
From what we could make out, it appears that the officers were attempting to cordon of an area as a crime scene.
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At this time, we were unable to verify what had taken place at the Hiedelberg interchange. However, it’s pretty obvious that the officers wanted no prying eyes near the ‘scene’.
Despite numerous attempts by the officers to remove the two women, they were met with resistance. Things went a bit awry after the women were not allowed a platform to explain why they were at the scene, filming everything on a phone.
After a short confrontation where the officers failed to establish authority over the situation, the one cop approached one of the women and slapped the phone out of her hands.
Before the video ends, the woman could be heard alleging that she was ‘slapped’.
Watch: The viral video that’s spreading on social media
No statements have been released by the Heidelberg police on the matter and we have not heard anything from the women on possible action they may have taken in response to the alleged assault.
You can watch the video below:
