Five female members of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), including ward 24 councillor Pulane Dube, have been arrested by the Lomanyaneng police in North West.
They were allegedly picketing in front of the local police station, demanding that police officials be held accountable for the escape of a suspect, at the Mahikeng Provincial Hospital.
The North West Police have instituted an internal disciplinary hearing following the escape of a suspect at Mahikeng Provincial Hospital while under police guard.
Police spokesperson, Adele Myburgh, says the suspect was taken by police to hospital with serious injuries after members of the community assaulted him for allegedly attacking his girlfriend with a sharp object.
“This is after they were picketing, that is in front of the police station. During this incident allegedly the women barricaded the road with stones and they also started to burn tyres. So the local police station contacted the public order police unit and they also made use of the rubber bullet to disperse the crowd,” says police spokesperson Colonel Adele Myburgh
Meanwhile, it is reported that the suspect used a saw to cut the police chain handcuffs in order to set himself free. The EFF gender-based violence desk alongside the community of Lomanyaneng and Setlopo, then went and shut down Lomanyaneng Police Station.
“That perpetrator ran under the custodianship of the police and no one is being held accountable. So, we went to the Lomanyaneng Police Station to demand that the police officer who was on duty that day must be held accountable, must be suspended, pending investigations, as to how that perpetrator managed to run away under custodianship,” says EFF Regional Secretary in Ngaka Modiri Molema Dintwe Mekgwe.
Myburgh says the suspect is due to appear in court soon. “This gentleman, there is another case now that he escaped from police custody and there will also be departmental steps, internal investigations underway for those members involved that were on duty as guards when this guy escaped.”
– Report by Sylvester Serame
