WANTED: Ian Cameron puts out an APB on Mashatile’s blue light thugs

The civil rights group Action Society has issued WANTED posters for six of the VIP Protection Unit members who assaulted unarmed civilians – and repeatedly kicked an unconscious man at the side of a highway in full glare of the public. Action Society’s Ian Cameron is outraged that the officers involved in the unprovoked attack have not been arrested and charged, but have just been put on administrative duty. “I mean, if you and I pointed a gun at someone, then kick them, beat them until they’re unconscious, carried on beating them after they had lost consciousness, then we’d be behind bars. You and I would be begging for bail.” Cameron also describes the ordeal suffered by the victim, Lvaughn Fisher, who thought it was a hijacking. – Chris Steyn

Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.

Watch here

Relevant timestamps from the interview

00:00 – Introductions
00:44 – Ian Cameron provides the victim’s account of the attack by VIP protection officers on the N1
02:52 – On the victim’s trauma after the assault
04:04 – On steps taken by Action Society to oppose “blue light mafia”
07:45 – On whether Paul Mashatile has reached out to the victim, as it was his convoy that perpetrated the assault
09:33 – On the mulit-billion Rand national budget for the SAPS VIP protection unit

Listen here

Highlights from the interview

Action Society’s Ian Cameron has shared the WANTED posters with BizNews. “We want them to be shared far and wide.”

Cameron is outraged that the officers involved in the unprovoked attack have not been arrested and charged.

“I think it’s an atrocity that they are being allowed to stay in service. So now what the National Commissioner has said today is that they have been withdrawn from official duty on the outside, but now they’ve been put on administrative duty. So they are still working. They haven’t been officially suspended.

“All of the eight police officers that were there that day have been served with letters of suspension, but that letter simply says they’ve got seven days to say why they shouldn’t be suspended, which is just not good enough.

“I mean, if you and I pointed a gun at someone, then kick them, beat them until they’re unconscious, carried on beating them after they had lost consciousness, then we’d be behind bars. You and I would be begging for bail.

“I want to see which union in this country has the guts to come forward and say that those guys need to stay in service of the South African Police Service (SAPS) after what they did. It would be union suicide. So I say just do the necessary and get rid of them.”

Cameron also described the traumatic ordeal suffered by the victim, Lvaughn Fisher, who thought it was a hijacking.

“They were, I think they were, in the middle of the left-hand lane on the highway. And then this black SUV pulled up next to them and tried to push them to the side. He looked to his right and he thought, we’re gonna be hijacked because they were pointing at him. And the next moment he accelerated…they pulled up next to him again and then they pointed a rifle at him. He then sped up again, but then another SUV pulled up in front of him. So now he’s been boxed in, and then they kind of, you know, pushed them to the side of the road.

“When they’d reached the side of the road, the cops got out. At that stage, he still thought they were hijackers. They didn’t have uniform on. He says there were no blue lights, no siren when the whole thing happened.

“…and then they used the butt of one of the assault rifles. He says it was an R5, and they were hitting the driver’s window and they didn’t manage to break it. They then went to the back right passenger window, they smashed that window, broke it out. That’s how they gained access to the vehicle. They managed to get hold of Lvaughn, they then hit him with a rifle over the head and beat him, and in this beating, he lost consciousness.

“So by the time he woke up, he still thought they had been hijacked.”

Action Society is calling on other victims of the “Blue Light Mafia” to come forward with their stories to bolster its campaign for a ban on the VIP Protection Unit.