By Marvin Caldwell-Barr
The daughter of a prominent politician ‘has accused police officers at OR Tambo International Airport of harassment after she was threatened with arrest and searched’.
After clearing customs Vimtha Rajbansi and an airport employee, who was helping with her luggage, were leaving the building when two cops confronted them and asked why the man was helping her:
The daughter of a prominent politician ‘has accused police officers at OR Tambo International Airport of harassment after she was threatened with arrest and searched’.
After clearing customs Vimtha Rajbansi and an airport employee, who was helping with her luggage, were leaving the building when two cops confronted them and asked why the man was helping her:
"These cops said to me that this man was not an employee of the
airport and he should not be assisting me with my bags. Therefore, I am a
suspect and they need to search me. I was a bit confused, as the man was
dressed in uniform and also had an official employee staff pass," she
said.
Rajbansi, who runs a public relations consultancy, said she was baffled when police asked the man who was helping her to leave and continued to intimidate and harass her for over two hours.
"If they were suspicious of him, why did they ask him to leave? Why did they not ask him to wait and have his pass verified at the station?"
Rajbansi, who runs a public relations consultancy, said she was baffled when police asked the man who was helping her to leave and continued to intimidate and harass her for over two hours.
"If they were suspicious of him, why did they ask him to leave? Why did they not ask him to wait and have his pass verified at the station?"
Why indeed?
She asked the two cops why they were suspicious of her but received no answer:
She asked the two cops why they were suspicious of her but received no answer:
"I could see they had nothing and were just making an excuse to
keep me there. I was a woman on my own, it was about 10pm and these cops
refused to listen to me or let me go."
At that point Ms Rajbansi decided to call her lawyer, ‘because she
believed that, as a woman, she was a "soft target" and needed
assistance’. Her lawyer arrived shortly afterwards.
Good move. Any woman in South Africa, on her own late at night, who finds herself detained by cops would have every reason to feel uneasy… even terrified (read this account of what two cops stationed near the airport did to a young mother practically under the nose of her husband).
There’s no conclusive proof that these two cops had anything other than police business on their minds, but even so, you can’t help wondering why they got rid of her helper straight off. The whole thing was so obviously trumped up it reeked to high heaven. Goodness knows what may have befallen Ms Rajbansi had she not been able to summon her lawyer.
With the lawyer’s arrival the cops would have realised that they had latched on to trouble. There was nothing for it but to go on with the charade. So Ms Rajbansi and her lawyer were made to go to the police station with the two cops where for over an hour they searched her bags. They also asked to see her passport; going through the motions of checking out a genuine suspect. The cops told her lawyer their suspicions were aroused because she had “a lot of luggage”:
Good move. Any woman in South Africa, on her own late at night, who finds herself detained by cops would have every reason to feel uneasy… even terrified (read this account of what two cops stationed near the airport did to a young mother practically under the nose of her husband).
There’s no conclusive proof that these two cops had anything other than police business on their minds, but even so, you can’t help wondering why they got rid of her helper straight off. The whole thing was so obviously trumped up it reeked to high heaven. Goodness knows what may have befallen Ms Rajbansi had she not been able to summon her lawyer.
With the lawyer’s arrival the cops would have realised that they had latched on to trouble. There was nothing for it but to go on with the charade. So Ms Rajbansi and her lawyer were made to go to the police station with the two cops where for over an hour they searched her bags. They also asked to see her passport; going through the motions of checking out a genuine suspect. The cops told her lawyer their suspicions were aroused because she had “a lot of luggage”:
"Nowhere in the world have I heard that people are suspects because
they are carrying suitcases.
"What is going to happen to women tourists who come to watch the World Cup? We need to ask whether OR Tambo International has proper police officers on the ground.
"It was humiliating watching them search through my luggage and take out my lingerie," she said.
"What is going to happen to women tourists who come to watch the World Cup? We need to ask whether OR Tambo International has proper police officers on the ground.
"It was humiliating watching them search through my luggage and take out my lingerie," she said.
Now the top police brass is overseeing an investigation into Ms Rajbansi’s
complaint. Let’s see where it goes.
