01 Mar
2013 | Sapa
The Democratic Alliance on Friday accused national
police commissioner Riah Phiyega of not taking police brutality seriously.
"We
need to tackle the causes of police brutality, not just the symptoms," DA
spokeswoman Dianne Kohler-Barnard said in a statement.
Phiyega
said earlier on Friday in Pretoria, that eight Daveyton police officers had
been suspended and the station commander removed after a taxi driver was
allegedly tied to and dragged behind a police van.
Mido
Macia, 27, a Mozambican national, was dragged along a Daveyton street on the
East Rand on Tuesday.
An
eyewitness filmed the incident.
Macia
died in the local police station's cells later that day.
"We
are... outraged with what happened," Phiyega told reporters.
Kohler-Barnard
said her party would ask Phiyega why two of the officers involved in Macia's
death were suspended instead of arrested.
"She
must urgently present a detailed plan of action to the South African public as
to how she will turn around what today looks like a police force rather than a
police service," she said.
"South
Africa has seen numerous high profile incidents of police brutality and use of
excessive force over the last five years -- from Andries Tatane to Marikana --
and now, the latest incident of the horrific death of Mido Macia."
Phiyega
could not continue pretending there was no problem within the police service,
she said.
