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SowetanLive reports that the Labour Court (LC) has ruled that the police service was wrong not to dismiss officers who kidnapped, assaulted and shot a man in the leg who was suspected of stealing a car battery from a police station.
The Cape Town LC last week overturned the January 2024 decision by Brig M Hartzenberg to hand Const K Tomboer of Atlantis police station a two-month suspension without pay. Tomboer and his two colleagues, Constables S van Heerden and H Filander, faced disciplinary action for kidnapping the man they suspected of having stolen a battery from Tomboer’s car at the station in November 2023. They went the man’s house, where they picked him up. They then drove with him to a secluded area where Tomboer and Van Heerden beat him while Filander looked on and did nothing to stop the assault. At another secluded area, Tomboer and Van Heerden continued to assault the man, who was found injured in the bushes the next day by his family and taken to hospital. None of the officers reported the incident on their return to the station.
Hartzenberg imposed a sanction of two months’ suspension without pay against Tomboer and Van Heerden, while Filander received one month’s suspension without pay. Van Heerden has since resigned from the police, while Tomboer and Filander remain in service. The police ministry approached the LC to seek a review of the sanctions and have it replaced with a dismissal.
The court found that Hartzenburg had erred in his disciplinary sanctions. “The sanction of suspension without pay imposed on [Tomboer and Van Heerden] is indeed one which shocks and alarms the court when the egregiousness of their conduct is taken into account. I accordingly find that [Hartzenburg] committed a gross irregularity in this regard ... I find that the sanctions were a decision which no reasonable decision-maker could have reached,” the judgment states.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Lindile Sifile at SowetanLive
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