One of the men employed to polish the public image of the police has turned into a PR nightmare after being fined for assaulting a traffic officer and hurling racial slurs.
Siyabulela Tom, the spokesperson for deputy police minister Bongani Mkongi, was fined R9,500 by the Cape Town magistrate's court on Tuesday. The 34-year-old was found guilty on two counts of crimen injuria and one of assault.
According to the prosecution, he insulted City of Cape Town traffic officer Jeremy Minnie at a roadblock in Green Point in July 2016.
Police said a "riotous" Tom told Minnie: "You p***, f*** you. Julle f***en coloured people and white people think you are in charge ... and saying you are f***ing coloured and you are covering up for a f***ing white man." According to court documents, he also "hit him on the chest with his fist".
Tom also allegedly told Sea Point police officer Constable Heinrich Pretorius: "Ja, take your own gun and shoot me [because] it is all you police are good for doing."
In an affidavit, Pretorius said the driver of the car in which Tom was travelling refused to take a breathalyser test and was arrested for drunken driving. Tom then made unsavoury remarks.
"I personally told him three times to step out of the road [because] he was standing in front of the cars and started to push everybody around," Pretorius said.
"He then told me, 'f***ing coloured people is licking the white people's arse' and I must not talk p**s to him. He then started to get more riotous with the traffic officer, Mr Minnie.
"I asked him to have some respect for the officers and he said, 'julle almal se p***, f** julle'. He pointed a finger at traffic officer Minnie, telling him, 'you can't do anything to me'. He then said to me, 'ja take your gun and shoot me cause that is all you police are good for doing'.
"When he got to traffic officer Minnie he [hit] him on the chest with his fist and called [him] a p*** and he can't do anything, he is a 'f***ing coloured covering up for the white people'."
Pretorius said Tom, a former ANC Youth League spokesperson in the Western Cape, was arrested.
In his affidavit, Minnie said: "I did not give Siyabulela Tom any reason to assault me or to swear at me and to humiliate me."
Tom, who pleaded not guilty, was fined R9,500, with R4,000 suspended for five years. He faced up to 18 months in prison for each count of crimen injuria and five months for assault.
Asked if he would appeal, Tom told the Sunday Times: "My lawyer is dealing with it." He would not provide this lawyer's name.
Earlier in the case, Tom said a white police officer at the roadblock called him "bobbejaan" (baboon). He claimed to have laid a complaint about the officer with the Human Rights Commission.
He said the officer spoke Afrikaans when he instructed his friend to blow into a breathalyser, and his only sin was offering to translate.
Tom's trial took almost four years. Eric Ntabazalila, a spokesperson for the prosecution in the Western Cape, said: "There were several reasons why the matter had to be postponed. Many of the requests for postponements came from the defence."
JP Smith, the councillor responsible for safety and security in Cape Town, said he hoped the police ministry would "denounce" Tom with the "same enthusiasm that the courts have".
"As much as we applaud rulings made against people like Penny Sparrow and others who made racially insensitive remarks, every case like this should be treated equally," he said.
"There is a lot of race-baiting in our politics. It is a far cry from the precedent set by Madiba."
Minnie said he was satisfied with the outcome of Tom's prosecution. "We experience verbal abuse every day as law enforcement officers. We hope that this will send out a strong message to the public."..