Norman Mokau, the victim of a brutal attack at the hands of a Vaalwater police officer in Limpopo last year, says he is still in pain after the incident. Mokau was beaten up by a police officer in November last year and the officer has only just been suspended.

The officer, Petrus Lefoka, 45, appeared in the Modimolle Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday on a charge of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm. He will reappear on May 9.

Mokau says that he is still suffering from headaches and back pain, and that he sometimes gets epileptic seizures.

2oceansVibe first reported on the incident earlier this week.

Mokau said his parents also now live in fear and they don’t allow him to go out anymore because they’re concerned that a similar incident could occur.

Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi, a Limpopo police communication officer, said the video footage was “shocking”, and that Lefoka has been suspended.

The internal processes are also taking shape. He will be appearing before a disciplinary hearing committee in a week’s time. The member acted outside the boundaries of the South African Police Act and should he be found guilty he will definitely be kicked out of the service.

ICD spokesperson, Moses Dlamini, was satisfied with the way the police were now handling the incident:

We will only get involved if the family or the victim himself are not satisfied with the investigation.

Lefoka, who had spent time in a position of acting station commander of Vaalwater Police Station after the incident occurred, will not receive his salary pending finalisation of the case.

[Sources: News24, SABC, Sowetan]