(Article by Sharika Regchand at www.iol.co.za)
Just hours after a police officer in a convoy allegedly caused an accident by shooting out a tyre on a car, which failed to get out of the fast lane on the N3, a similar convoy later harassed motorists on the highway.
The constable, belonging to an MEC’s VIP protection unit, appeared briefly in the Camperdown Magistrate’s Court on Monday charged with eight counts of attempted murder after the incident on Saturday morning.
Hlanganani Nxumalo, 28, tasked with protecting welfare MEC Meshack Radebe, is alleged to have shot out the tyre of a Mazda sedan. The sedan veered out of control and crashed into a bakkie, injuring eight people.
Nxumalo had been a passenger in a black Volkswagen Golf with flashing blue lights on its way to fetch Radebe from his home in Durban.
He later handed himself over to police.
Nxumalo, who lives at the police barracks in Alexandra Road, Pietermaritzburg, smiled while being photographed yesterday, before magistrate Thys Taljaard entered the courtroom.
The matter was adjourned until tomorrow for a bail application.
A motorist, who would not be named, said that he and his wife had also been harassed by vehicles flashing blue lights while on their way to Pietermaritzburg at about 2.30pm on Saturday.
They were in the fast lane behind a 4×4, with a white vehicle in the slow lane next to them, when a black Golf with flashing blue lights approached them from behind.
The Golf was followed by a black SUV and a silver BMW.
“These vehicles proceeded to tailgate us and flash lights. There was no place for me to go but forward. After forcing me to speed up and cut in front of the vehicle in the lane next to me, they proceeded to harass the 4×4 vehicle that was in front of us.”
The motorist said the convoy had passed them at speed.
“About 4km further on, all three vehicles veered off to the left and then stopped on the side of the highway,” he said.
The occupants then proceeded to take a break next to the highway.
“Why the rush, pushing everybody dangerously out of the way, and then stop for a break? What was the emergency they had to get to for them to travel at that speed and endanger fellow road users?” the man asked.
The latest “blue light” incident has attracted widespread criticism from the public and opposition parties, with the DA calling for Radebe’s dismissal.
Letter writers to The Mercury said they were tired of being bullied by government officials on the roads.
The IFP said that it would call for a review of regulations governing the use of the “infamous blue lights by public office bearers”. Party leader Lionel Mtshali said they were disgusted by Radebe’s “arrogant response” in distancing himself from Saturday’s incident.
“Radebe bears responsibility for the behaviour of people he himself hired in preference to the SAPS VIP unit that he would otherwise be entitled to,” he said.
He said that it emerged last week in the provincial legislature’s finance committee that Radebe had hired a private security unit, “incurring extra cost to the taxpayer and imposing an additional burden on his department’s budget, already overspent by about R100-million”.
He said that the incident might not have occurred had Radebe settled for a VIP security unit ordinarily available to ministers from the ranks of the SAPS.
Several “blue light” cases have been reported this year. They include:
- A motorist punching a VIP driver after he crashed into another car, seriously injuring its occupants, on the N3 near Camperdown in May;
- Angus Kenard, 28, of Ladysmith being slapped by the occupants of three SUVs while travelling near Estcourt on June 5. One of the vehicles was registered to the SAPS Protection Services; and
- Dan Mathee, 84, almost being pushed off the road and shot at by the occupants of a white minibus with a flashing blue light on the southern freeway, also on June 5.
Blue light incidents also dominated headlines last year.
These included public works MEC Lydia Johnson’s speeding convoy being involved in a five-car pile-up in February and ANC president Jacob Zuma’s bodyguard allegedly pointing a firearm at motorists in April.
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