Traffic cop case put on hold

May 30 , 2008

Zululand OBSERVER

	Traffic cop case put on hold Tanya Waterworth THE City's internal enquiry regarding a submitted complaint alleging that an uMhlathuze traffic officer slapped a member of the public during a roadside argument, has been put on hold. The hearing regarding the complaint was scheduled for last Tuesday, but complainant Amy Brown was told when she arrived for the hearing that the case has been suspended, pending a decision by a court prosecutor as to whether a criminal charge laid by Brown regarding the same incident, will proceed in court or not. An outraged Brown said she was unhappy in the manner in which her complaint was being handled. 'As far as I am concerned the two matters should be handled independently,' said Brown. Municipal response uMhlathuze City CEO, Dr Tonie Heyneke, said there were two previous cases where officials were charged with criminal acts while executing their duties for the municipality. In the first case the traffic official was accused of shooting and killing a traffic inspector of the Road Traffic Inspectorate during a road block. In the second case a refuse remover was accused of assaulting a resident of Meerensee after an altercation about the handling of a refuse bin. 'In both cases the municipality resolved to wait until the outcome of the criminal cases, before it would decide on further action against the officials. In both cases the officials were found not guilty of the charges. It is therefore only fair and just that in the case of the accused traffic officer, the same procedure be followed. Reinstatement Following the story in the Zululand Observer when the alleged incident occurred, a number of other local residents came forward to complain about the aggressive behaviour of the officer in question. An independent labour consultant said that criminal charges and misconduct in employment should be treated as separate issues and the outcomes of both are independent of each other, even though both aspects are borne out of the same incident. But he cautioned that outside of a collective agreement, it would not be advisable to suspend an employee pending the outcome of a criminal case, as suspension is normally with pay and the employer has no control over the length of time a criminal matter may take.