CAPE TOWN. – The City of Cape Town is offering a reward for information leading to the arrest of people who attacked traffic officers during an illegal street race in Paarden Island.
Two traffic officers were injured and three City of Cape Town traffic vehicles were damaged during the incident on Friday night, 18 September.
According to Alderman JP Smith, the City's mayoral committee member for safety and security, officers shortly after 23:00 arrested two motorists for reckless and negligent driving and participation in an illegal street race.
The street racing resumed around midnight, after which a third driver was arrested. He is charged with, among other things, participation in illegal street racing, drunk driving, failure to stop and wilful damage to property after he collided with a traffic vehicle.
When officers tried to impound the vehicle, the crowd of onlookers became hostile according to Smith. Two additional traffic vehicles were damaged, one of which had its side and rear windows smashed.
Maitland SAPS assisted the traffic officers. Officers then pursued the vehicle that they had tried to impound and which had meanwhile been towed from the scene.
The driver of the towed vehicle was arrested on charges of riotous behaviour, intimidation, threatening a law enforcement officer, obstructing and hindering a law enforcement officer and incitement of violence.
All four suspects were held at Maitland SAPS. Three vehicles which according to the City were used in the illegal street racing were impounded in terms of the City's traffic by-law.
Marine Drive was cleared for traffic at 01:45.
Smith said the City will now work with SAPS to identify and locate other people involved in the attack.
The City is offering a reward for information leading to the arrest of any of the people who attacked the law enforcement officers.
Information can be provided anonymously, 24 hours a day, on 0800 110 077.
Source: City of Cape Town
This article is an automatic English translation of a Nuusflits article originally published in Afrikaans. Read the Afrikaans original.
