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The Star reports that some officers at the Pretoria Central police station, who filed various internal and criminal complaints against Captain James Henrico, said they were frustrated about having to bump into him at work every day.
Henrico has been accused of racially abusing black police officials, using the k-word and verbally harassing them. They claim they had asked for his suspension, but he was merely moved to another department.
The officers were speaking outside the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court after Henrico appeared briefly. The matter was postponed for the third time to July 20, for presentations.
An officer said they had been trying to fight racism at the police station for years. “There is no way you’d want to wake up in the morning and want to serve the people while being called derogatory names; it is very painful.”
According to Lawyers for Human Rights, complaints lodged against Henrico dated back to 2016 and related to racial abuse.
Attorney and head of the strategic litigation programme Wayne Ncube said: “It’s problematic to have a high-ranking officer who has a criminal case against them not being suspended. The people who laid a complaint have to work with him.
“That is not normal, and we are concerned because it’s irregular as it makes it look like basic protocol was not followed.”
Ncube said he did not understand why Henrico was not on suspension. He rubbished claims by police spokesperson Brigadier Mathapelo Peters that a criminal case was opened after the departmental process had been concluded.
Another officer said: “I’m appealing to the security cluster portfolio committee to go to the database and see cases relating to police officers who opened cases against others, and check their grievances. They will find a lot of cases for racism, but nothing was done.”
The original of this report by Matlhatsi Dibakwane appeared on page 11 of The Star of 21 June 2018
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