You’ve probably heard about the incident over the weekend where Julius Malema was stopped by armed police in Jozi, the politician becoming pretty worked up over the matter.

Now, following a report written to the Acting National Police Commissioner, the police involved have attempted to explain why they stopped him at the Grayston off-ramp.

News24 has the details of that report:

“The member saw a Golf 7 with identification lights fitted like that of the police. He then enquired from the radio as to the owner of the vehicle from SAPS reaction channel and it came through as unknown,” the report said.

“He then realised that the vehicle was driving together with the Range Rover, and he suspected that this might be vehicle hijackers. The member then called for back-up”.

When Malema and the second car reached the off-ramp police stopped and approached the vehicle, with the occupants climbing out to address the police. Juju was certainly not impressed:

“The member indicated that he saw Mr Malema as he was the loudest of them all saying why was he stopped and harassed.

“One of the flying squad members calmed him down and told him that they were not aware that it is him on that convoy as both vehicles were registered under a private company. Everyone then departed and went their separate ways,” said the report.

Now for Malema’s version of events:

At 21:23 on Sunday, Malema tweeted: “Just survived police harassment at Grayston off-ramp, 12 police men pointed me with rifles and forced me out of the car…”

The EFF then released a statement where spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said Malema was stopped by a white unmarked van at the Grayston Drive off-ramp on Sunday night, and was then surrounded by around 10 police vehicles.

“The police then all came out pointing guns at his car and forced him out. The entire intersection at the Grayston Drive off-ramp was blocked, isolating him from the rest of the traffic,” Ndlozi said.

“The CIC [commander-in-chief] Julius Malema got out and the police all did nothing, claiming it was a mistake. He forced his way around the police cars, driving over the pavements and drove off,” Ndlozi said.

Finally the retort from Police Minister spokesperson Musa Zondi:

“The information from the people on the ground is that they did not harass anyone. From what they say, they received more aggression from the other side than they were aggressive. They handled the situation very professionally.”

I guess it comes down to who you believe more, the SAPS or Julius Malema.

Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place…

[source:news24]

[imagesource:dispatch]