Racist cops jailed

2003-12-01 16:01

Cape Town - Four white policemen who beat up at black colleague for playing loud music during a birthday party were jailed by the Cape Town magistrate's court on Monday.

Theo Goosen, whose role in the incident was his failure to report it, was jailed for 12 months, of which half was conditionally suspended for five years.

The other three, Francois van Olm, Anton Brewer and Leonard Woolstencroft, were jailed for 18 months of which nine were conditionally suspended for five years.

They appeared before magistrate Sam Maku, who said his assessors, Brenda Sass and David Stone, represented the community and were in agreement that jail was the appropriate punishment.

In addition to their jail sentences, Van Olm and Woolstencroft were fined R4 000 or eight months, for crimen injuria.

On the latter charge they swore at their victim, Vincent Mdutyulwa, using the offensive "kaffir".

The incident happened in the early hours of October 30 1999, at the police barracks at Caledon Square.

Mdutyulwa, after being severely beaten up in a room at the barracks, was dragged down a flight of steps and into the charge office, where the beating continued.

Maku said a totally suspended jail sentence or a fine as requested by the four on the assault charge was out of the question. He said racist attacks such as this one gave the police a bad name and created resentment towards white people in the black communities.

Maku described the incident as "unthinkable and something one would prefer not to think about".

He said the four policemen were physically much bigger than Mdutyulwa and had behaved like wild thugs.

He agreed with prosecutor Ruwayda Badrudeen that the courts had to take a very serious view of racist attacks, especially those involving the police.

Maku said it was recognised that tempers were often under severe strain and close to breaking point among police men and women as they carried out their duties. However part of police training involved the control of tempers, he said.

The four men, who were not represented, have indicated their intention to appeal, and have been released on warning pending the outcome.

- SAPA