SAPS VIP Protection Unit Assault Victim To Sue Police R1 Million
The SAPS VIP Protection Unit’s violent assault on SANDF members on the N1 highway in Johannesburg last week could end up costing the police a lot of money.
This is in addition to the fact that one of the victims has already started the process of suing Police Minister Bheki Cele and the SAPS, and the others are thinking about doing the same.
Eight cops involved in the horrifying incident have already received suspension notices, and the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) is looking into assault charges.
The victims’ lawyers spoke to Eyewitness about looming civil action as well.
Daniel Eloff is representing one of the victims, L’vaughn Fisher, and says they’ve already served the SAPS with notice of their intention to sue.
“They get 60 days to respond to it. So you can’t actually issue before you’ve issued that notice. So we’ve now done that and we’re now waiting for the period to run down and thereafter we’ll be able to issue summons against them.”
Eloff says, at this stage, they’re looking at suing Police Minister Bheki Cele and the SAPS for R1 million for the mental and psychological trauma as well as the physical trauma Fisher suffered during the assault and that he’s confident in their chances.
“Certainly. The point is the evidence is there, the witnesses are there. And to be quite frank these members of the SAPS VIP Unit acted in a thuggish way and completely unlawfully so we really are confident in this matter.”
Ulrich Roux, who is representing some of the other victims, says while they’re currently focused on the criminal case, that they are also in the process of “evaluating all the evidence and the surrounding circumstances to launch a possible civil claim at a later stage”.
Both Eloff and Roux say as far as they’re aware, there still haven’t been any arrests in the matter.
