Staff Reporter
Free State Police Commissioner Lieutenant General Baile Motswenyane has ordered an investigation into the case of a man seen in a video being transported in a dog cage by the police.
In the video, the man, who has been identified as Tshediso Paul Mohale, is handcuffed from behind and is sitting in a dog cage placed at the back of a marked police bakkie.
Mohale is hunched over as he can hardly fit in this cage made up of two small partitions.
In the other compartment, there is a police dog barking viciously.
The incident is believed to have taken place in 2019 in Hennenman, northern Free State.
OFM reports that Mohale was arrested by four police officers on November 2, 2019 for allegedly dealing in dagga.
The police are said to have raided his house without a search warrant.
It is also alleged one of the police officers made racial slurs at Mohale before detaining him in the dog cage.
Provincial police spokesperson Brigadier Sam Makhele said Motswenyane is treating the matter very seriously and has ordered an immediate investigation into the circumstances surrounding the matter.
“The provincial commissioner . . . regards this matter as very serious hence she instructed the district commissioner to, with immediate effect, start with a departmental investigation to probe this matter,” said Makhele in the statement released on Tuesday.
“For now we regard the matter as pending, and will allow the legal route to unfold,” he added.
Media reports say Mohale wants to lay a civil claim against the police in the Free State High Court for the pain and suffering he endured in the “dehumanising” and “unlawful” arrest.
He is seeking R1.5 million in damages.