Muizenberg Police Station Commander Col Vassie Naidoo appeared in court with three co-accused on charges of common assault filed against them by alleged gang members.
Naidoo, along with co-accused Lt Col Margaret Rossouw and admin clerks Elana Harbor and Mark Roberts appeared briefly in the Muizenberg Magistrates’ Court on Thursday 14 April. The case was postponed and transferred to the Wynberg Regional Court for Wednesday 25 May.
The four are facing 24 charges between them which include extortion and common assault.
Naidoo and Rossouw have since been temporarily transferred from the Muizenberg Police Station pending the court case.
Outside court, former Western Cape Minister of transport Robin Carlisle claimed Naidoo was being driven out of the Muizenberg precinct by criminals.
“When Col Naidoo came to Muizenberg in 2018, the whole police precinct was a disgrace. Nothing was more of a disgrace than that charge office.
“He cleaned that up and turned it into the best police station in South Africa as recorded and recognised by the South African police headquarters and he held that for three years.
“Now he is being driven out of here by criminals and worse than criminals by the gangsters in the local area. Every single charge brought against him of the first 18 emanate from gangsters who this police station arrested.”
Carlisle claimed that police are more and more being run by gang members. “And I’m afraid if we look back to what happened to the anti-gang boss and any other people and go to any suburb on the Cape Flats they will tell you the gangsters are more and more running the police.
“We are going to have to fight that, not only the people who are here but everyone who lives here. Of the people who laid charges, they were charged with four murders, 23 attempted murders, including one on a policeman who will probably lose the use of his arm, and four rapes. That’s the kind of people who are in effect prosecuting our colonel.”
Carlisle questioned why prosecutors were going ahead with the case.
“We have to ask ourselves, why are the police or the prosecutors going ahead with this? Who runs the Western Cape in terms of law and order, is it the gangsters or is it the police?”
Admin Clerk Marco Petersen claimed the charges against his colleagues were bogus. “Since they started here they have done patrols and I am here to support my colleagues.”
PR councillor Grant Haskin said the charges against the colonels were an organised campaign to get rid of them.
“We are here to support the colonels and our observation is that they have done a fantastic job, they have driven down crime. This is an organised campaign to get rid of them so that the criminals can run the show.”
Haskin says the lack of an MEC for community safety has left an oversight when it comes to police.
“There has been no MEC for community safety in the Western Cape government for the last three or four months. This has left a vacuum in the Western Cape government in respect of oversight of the police. It is impossible for one MEC to run two particular portfolios at the same time, especially community safety. So community safety has been on the back burner of the Western Cape government, it is their responsibility to co-ordinate matters with the provincial commissioner.”
