DJ sues minister after ‘assault’ by cops
Ngwako Malatji@City_Press9
February 2014 10:00
Lesedi FM’s award-winning
presenter Nyakallo “Ba2cada” Leine is suing Police Minister NathiMthethwa
after he was allegedly kicked and punched by two Zamdela police officers.
An employee at the Zamdela
police station said that officers had seen the summons that Leine’s lawyers had
delivered to the station. “He is suing [the officers] and … Mthethwa. The case
is going to be heard in the Bloemfontein High Court sometime next week,” said
the employee.
Leine, who was named the
best afternoon show presenter at the 2013 MTN Radio Awards, got into a row with
police late last year over a traffic fine. The DJ was found guilty in the
Sasolburg Magistrates’ Court late last year of interfering with a police
officer’s duties and was handed a five-year suspended sentence.
But he is pursuing the case
against police because, he claimed, he was beaten up during the argument.
The employee, who did not
want to be named as he is not allowed to speak to the media, said Leine was a
passenger in a friend’s car when they were stopped by two policemen in the
Sasolburg area for reckless driving.
A row erupted between Leine
and one of the police officers who was trying to issue a traffic fine to the
driver, the employee said. Leine claimed in a complaint to the Independent
Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) that one officer then pulled him out of
the car and asked him why he was interfering.
He claimed that the
officers kicked and slapped him before bundling the two men into their vehicle
and taking him to the station.
He was detained there for a
few hours before he was released without being charged.
Leine confirmed that he had
opened a case of assault against the two officers and had filed a lawsuit
against them.
“I want to teach them a
lesson. If they think they can continue to beat up people and get away with it,
then they don’t know what’s coming their way,” he said.
Free State Police
spokesperson Superintendent AnnelieWrensch confirmed that Leine had opened a
case of common assault and filed a lawsuit against the two Zamdela police
officers.
She said: “We can confirm
that a case of common assault was opened on September 30 and Ipid is
investigating it.
“The police’s legal
services department has received intent to institute a civil claim based on the
alleged assault, which will be opposed by the SAPS,” she added.
