Soweto motorist caught in crossfire from SAPS car chase
When Thando Mashinini from Protea Glen, Soweto, picked her young sister up from night school on the morning of June 17, she didn’t think she would end up with a bullet in her vehicle, thanks to SAPS officers shooting at a vehicle they were in a car chase with that morning.
Mashinini was waiting for her sister and her mate after an overnight session at an extra-lessons education centre in Dobsonville.
“My sister attends Curro Academy and we’ve signed her up for extra lessons at a night school in Dobsonville. She was attending a crossnight session and the sister of my sister’s classmate dropped them off at about 5pm on the 16th. I then fetched them the following morning at around 6.30am.
“I was parked on the side of the road as I was near the pavement. As the kids were about to step into the car, we heard gunshots. As I looked on my right-hand side, I saw a police van chasing a white SUV. The police were shooting at the vehicle they were chasing.”
Mashinini said that fortunately, no one was injured while this was happening. Her vehicle has a bullet hole in the boot and in the back seat. The left passenger’s seat also has a hole in it. The bullet also left a crack in the windscreen.
While Mashinini has taken the matter up with her insurance, she is left wondering if the SAPS would pay the excess amount due.
She was told by her insurer that because the damage to the vehicle is more than its value, she has been given a few options - to have the vehicle written off or replace the damage.
“I went to Meadowlands police station to open a case and to have an accident report done,” she said.
According to Mashinini, as informed by her insurer, fixing the vehicle would cost more than the value of the car and therefore considered a write-off.
“I was told by the investigating officer that in this case, the police are not at fault as they were doing their job. So they would not be paying for the excess amount required towards my insurer.”
When the Sunday Independent sent a query to the Gauteng SAPS spokesperson, Brigadier Brenda Muridili said: “Where a criminal case has been opened against the SAPS, the matter must be investigated and eventually be taken to court.”
Muridili said the complainant may institute a civil claim in court against SAPS, if they feel that the service has to pay the access amount.
“To the best of my knowledge, there has not been any such requests previously,” she added.