Deputy Mayor’s bodyguards deny assaulting taxi driver

The bodyguards of the Ethekwini Municipality’s deputy mayor have denied assaulting a taxi driver on a road in Durban, the municipality said on Thursday.

“At no stage did they ever assault the taxi driver nor pull out firearms,” said the municipality’s spokesman Thabo Mofokeng in a statement.

It was reported on Thursday that two bodyguards allegedly assaulted and pointed a gun at a taxi driver after he did not move out the way on Soldiers Way.

KwaZulu-Natal police said they were investigating a case of pointing a gun after the taxi driver opened a case.

“Nobody has been arrested at the moment, but a pointing of a firearm case has been opened against the two men,” said Captain Thulani Zwane.

“It was unclear if the men were bodyguards or not. “The taxi driver also said the men took the keys of the vehicle he was driving.

“We are still investigating.” Zwane said the incident was reported to the police on Saturday.

Mofokeng rejected the taxi driver’s version.

He said the bodyguards were on duty when a taxi swung from the other side of the road and cut in front of their car nearly causing an accident.

“At the next robot they approached the taxi driver and clearly identified themselves as police officers. The taxi driver than ran away leaving the vehicle on the road with passengers,” said Mofokeng.

The deputy mayor was not in the vehicle at the time of the incident, said Mofokeng.

He said the matter has been handed over to the police.

Last year, a member of the VIP protection unit of social development MEC Meshack Radebe allegedly shot out a car’s tyre on the N3 near Camperdown, causing a head-on collision that injured eight people.

In January a Johannesburg motorist was allegedly assaulted by VIP protection officers on the N12 after his car “got too close” to Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe’s convoy.

In February a University of Cape Town student who made an obscene gesture at President Jacob Zuma’s convoy was detained.

Western Cape premier Helen Zille announced at her state of the province address that her province was to pass a law banning politicians from using blue-light convoys.