- Two men captured in a viral video being assaulted by two police officers have laid charges at a local police station.
- Queries as to whether the officers have been suspended have not yet been responded to.
- The incident is being investigated by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate.
Two men recorded being assaulted by two police officers in Worcester have been identified and have laid charges at the local police station, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate confirmed on Thursday.
"IPID has managed to identify the two victims who are seen in the video footage being slapped, searched and sjambokked by [Anti-Gang Unit] members," spokesperson Ndileka Cola said.
"The victims have opened a case at Worcester police station. The directorate continues to investigate this matter."
The incident, which took place near an industrial area on Monday, was recorded and circulated on social media and showed the officers, one with a sjambok in his back pocket, searching two men on the side of a road.
[WATCH] Worcester police caught on camera sjamboking a man and another searching and slapping the second man. The incident happened on Monday, the van belongs to Ceres police station but is used by the Worcester unit and the police have been positively identified pic.twitter.com/OP5JDkHO4F
— Veve (@LudidiVelani) January 20, 2021
One officer asks the person he is searching what he is doing there. When the person responds that he was working, he is questioned about the absence of his mask. As he pulls something up to cover his face, the officer tells him that that is not a mask and slaps him.
He flees as the other officer starts beating the second person with the sjambok he took from his partner.
The assault is being investigated by the Worcester Cluster Commander.
Police previously confirmed that the two officers, based in Worcester, had been driving a Ceres police station vehicle, currently being used by their unit.
At the time, the two men had not yet been identified or interviewed, although SAPS confirmed that beating and manhandling people and suspects was "against departmental directives and prescripts that govern the handling of persons by police officials", while the use of the sjambok was unlawful and forbidden.
Queries as to whether the officers had been suspended had not yet been responded to.