Three members of the City of Cape Town’s VIP protection unit are to appear in court for allegedly assaulting the ANC councillor.
|||Cape Town - Three members of the City of Cape Town’s VIP protection unit, tasked with protecting the mayor and her executive, are to appear in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday on allegations of assaulting a former ANC councillor and so-called “toilet protester”.
Richard Bosman, executive director of safety and security, confirmed that the bodyguards had been charged with common assault after an alleged attack on Andile Lili, but he said reports that metro cops were also to appear in court on assault charges were inaccurate.
Lili, who was named by Western Cape Premier Helen Zille as the instigator of the “poo protests”, alleged he was insulted, manhandled and assaulted by the bodyguards and three metro cops when he tried to access the fifth floor of the Civic Centre.
Lili was expelled as a councillor earlier this year for breaching the councillor’s code of conduct.
He has also been suspended from the ANC for his involvement in the dumping of faeces at the entrance to the Western Cape legislature and at Cape Town International Airport.
Lili alleged he was assaulted when he tried to find out about his pension at the Civic Centre. He alleged the bodyguards and metro cops forcibly removed him from a chair and pushed him into a lift. They also used racial slurs, he said.
Council Speaker Dirk Smit said the city was also investigating the matter.
“How did Lili get on to the fifth floor? Was there assistance from other councillors?”
Smit said he had confirmed with security that, contrary to Lili’s account, he did not have an appointment to see anyone in the building.
Staff had been told he was no longer a councillor and that his access to the Civic Centre should be restricted accordingly.
anel.lewis@inl.co.za
Cape Argus