Outrage in South Africa after man shackled to police van and dragged down street

The police arrested a man and tied his hands together with handcuffs. Then, they pulled him along the road using their van and later physically attacked him.

A very upsetting video has become very popular in South Africa. It appears to show a man being pulled along a road in a very violent way on Friday evening around 6pm.

Police officers supposedly tied one of Milosh Basson’s hands to the back door of their car because they thought he had drugs.

A few people from the area chased after the van when it started driving in a neighborhood in Cape Town. They were yelling and screaming, and one person even tried to grab Milosh’s hand.

Milosh said he felt like he wasn’t fully awake for most of the difficult situation because he had been sprayed with pepper spray right before.

He was reportedly abandoned inside the van, injured and covered in blood, for a long time before being brought to the police station. He says that once there, officers kicked him and hit him with pipes.

Milosh said to SowetanLive that he was scared they might harm him at some time.

A video appears to show a person being handcuffed to a police vehicle in South Africa while it was moving.
Lawyer Keegan Lasker mentioned that he could only meet with his client after 10pm on that particular evening.

‘His clothes were covered in blood. He said that it was clear to him that he couldn’t help the person on a Friday because he was being treated badly by the police.

Milosh got out of custody on Monday after allegedly being accused of having drugs and not cooperating with the police.

The police are looking into what happened in a video that was shared and the officer who got hurt during the violent situation in Kensington.

The Ipid, which is in charge of overseeing the police in South Africa, said its investigators are going to meet with Milosh and ask him to share his statement.
A spokesperson said that they are starting to look into three people.

People often say that the police in South Africa are very violent and cruel. This reputation goes back to apartheid, when officers were used to make sure discrimination and segregation happened.

Although there have been big improvements, some of the old ways still exist as the country has become a democracy.

According to Ipid statistics, in the year 2019 to 2020, one person was killed every 20 hours because of police actions, on average.

In Johannesburg on August 26, 2020, a major case happened where a disabled 16-year-old named Nathaniel Julius was shot.
Police officers are being accused of causing his death because he was unable to respond to their questions due to his Down syndrome which made it hard for him to talk.

His family said he went out to buy biscuits and something really bad happened.

On August 16, 2012, the police in South Africa shot at a group of mine workers who were on strike in a place called Marikana, located in the North West province. This incident caused a lot of negative attention towards the police.

Around 34 people were killed and 78 people were severely injured when protests for higher wages turned violent, which is now referred to as the Marikana massacre.

Even the police minister, Bheki Cele, said that incidents of police violence in the country are concerning.
He recently explained to Parliament members that some police officers are doing a great job, but others are simply a result of the difficult social problems faced by all South Africans.

He said that these members are from very upset communities in our society.

Mr Cele continued, saying that the behavior we are currently seeing from South Africans should be the same behavior we expect from them. I heard that children are often similar to their parents.

He said that the state was trying to make things better for the police by hiring more psychologists and social workers to help with their well-being and mental health.