Two of mayor Patricia de Lille's bodyguards will appear in court on charges of assaulting poo protester Andile Lili.
|||Cape Town - Two of mayor Patricia de Lille’s bodyguards and three Metro police officers accused of assaulting toilet protest leader Andile Lili are to appear in Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.
They are to be charged with common assault, said police spokesman Frederick van Wyk.
Speaker Dirk Smit said they had not been suspended because “they haven’t been found guilty”.
Shortly after the alleged assault last Tuesday, Smit said Lili had been “gently escorted” from the building.
Lili, who Premier Helen Zille named as a ringleader in the so-called poo protests, opened a case of assault at Cape Town central police station on Wednesday.
He alleged the men forcefully removed him from the fifth floor at the Civic Centre and punched him while in a lift.
Lili said an arm and his back were injured in the process.
Another member of the so-called poo protesters, Sithembele Majova, alleged he was also beaten by the men while in the lift.
Yesterday, Lili said he was pleased the men were going to court, and will follow it up with a civil suit.
“On Thursday I will be going to the Western Cape High Court to hand in papers for a civil case against the City of Cape Town,” he said.
He said the case was for derogatory statements directed at him by the officers who called him the “k-word” and because of “insults” made by De Lille and her mayco committee in February.
He said they had made public statements that he was responsible for blocking development in Khayelitsha and had made derogatory comments to a resident which was not true.
Smit said: “There is a full investigation on how Mr Lili got to the fifth floor and who assisted him or did he get there on his own?
“On the other hand we are investigating if the officials reacted within their authority and did their duty.
“There is an investigation into the whole matter.”
xolani.koyana@inl.co.za
Cape Times