POLICE in Newcastle are being investigated after allegedly beating a woman and then setting their dogs on her.
Millicent Khumalo, 32, is still in hospital recovering from the injuries she sustained when two police officers allegedly hit her in the face last week, ripped off her shirt and then held her on the ground while their dogs savaged her on the legs, thighs and arms.
However, police later said Khumalo, a teacher, attacked them when they tried to question her boyfriend, Sibongiseni Cele, about a disturbance in the area. She has been charged with resisting arrest.
Newcastle police spokesman Senior Superintendent Adriaan Botes said the matter was being probed by an internal police review committee.
A bitter Khumalo said from her hospital bed that the assault was sparked off by a shop owner who called her boyfriend "a kaffir" during an argument just before the attack.
"We were buying a magazine when the shop owner got into an argument with Sibongiseni.
"The man then threw Sibongiseni's money in his face and called him a kaffir," said Khumalo.
"I told the shop owner that he shouldn't take black people's money if he had that kind of attitude and we left."
Khumalo said they had gone to another shop to by the magazine when a police dog unit van arrived.
"I was astonished when the police started arguing with my boyfriend and wouldn't let him tell his side of the story.
"They tore his shirt and then klapped him across the head," she said. "I demanded to know what the charge was, but one of the policemen told me to shut up and then punched me on the forehead."
The policeman then allegedly ripped off her shirt and tried to drag her into the back of the police van.
"I was not wearing a bra and my breasts were bare. He laughed and told me I was also under arrest.
"When I saw he was going to throw me in with the dogs, I tried to pull away," Khumalo said.
She said she was instead thrown to the ground and held there while the two police dogs repeatedly bit her.
"They charged me with resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer and then put me into a cell at the police station, even though I was bleeding profusely," she said.
Khumalo was later admitted to Newcastle Provincial Hospital under police guard with severe injuries to both feet, her upper right thigh and both arms.
"I am going to report this police brutality to the Independent Complaints Directorate.
"This has been a gross violation of my rights and those thugs are going to have to answer for their actions," she warned. - African Eye News Service
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