A taxi driver has been arrested after he allegedly rammed his minibus taxi into a female Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) officer who stopped him in morning traffic in Houghton on Friday.
Chief superintendent Wayne Minnaar alleged that the officer had to hold onto the taxi's windscreen wipers as she was dragged for several metres.
She sustained multiple injuries and has been admitted to hospital.
Sketching the background, Minnaar said two officers were on point duty and a third was ensuring that traffic flowed freely, he said.
One of the officers stopped a white Toyota taxi and the driver apparently started swearing at her.
"When the officer turned her back to direct traffic, the taxi driver [allegedly] accelerated and smashed into the officer," Minnaar said.
"The female officer had to hold onto the windscreen wipers to refrain from been dragged underneath the taxi."
'Enough is enough'
Minnaar said the officer's colleagues arrested the driver, but not before other taxi drivers formed a mob and surrounded them.
"In response, the officers drew their service firearms to stabilise the situation. In an act of further provocation, the group of taxi drivers that had surrounded our JMPD officers even gestured to the female officer inviting her to fight them."
Other officers soon arrived to provide back-up and the taxi drivers dispersed.
The arrested driver was taken to the Yeoville police station.
Minnaar said the officer was injured on her left arm, leg, face and back. She also suffered a concussion to the head.
Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba and other officials visited the officers to make sure they were okay.
"An attack on our JMPD officers, is not only an attack on our government but an attack on our efforts to return the rule of law in our City. It is an attack on the people of our city, who are desperate to feel safe in their homes, communities and streets," said Mashaba.
"For years a culture of lawlessness was allowed to fester in our city and it falls to society, as a whole, to declare that 'enough is enough'."
The City intends to make submissions to the National Prosecuting Authority to oppose the driver's release on bail.
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