Cop up for 'baboon' slur

A senior Cape Town police officer is facing a crimen injuria case for calling a security guard a "baboon".

"Do you know that this is Cape Town? Here whites play the guitar and baboons (blacks) dance," Senior Superintendent Christian Tron is alleged to have told security guard Bulelani Mgcewu in March.

On Friday Tron's case was postponed for the third time by the Khayelitsha magistrate's court.

Mgcewu told Sowetan it all began on March 18 when the accused attended another case at the court. He said Tron parked his car in a bay designated for the magistrate.

"I asked him to move his car. But he said: 'Do you know that this is Cape Town. Here, whites play the guitar and baboons (blacks) dance'," Mgcewu told Sowetan.

On Friday prosecutor Bheki Hlela asked for a postponement. He told magistrate Gary Harmse that the prosecutor had recused himself because Mgcewu and other witnesses are his colleagues.

Hlela said that the prosecution had only recently found out that charges of "bribery and defeating the ends of justice" had been added to the case.

This because, according to Mgcewu, Tron came to him after calling him a baboon and offered to buy him a car if he dropped the charges.

"A case of crimen injuria is a very serious charge on its own as it involves racial expressions," Hlela said.

"If we let this continue we will be failing the values we fought for. Bribery and defeating the ends of justice are very serious crimes since corruption is rife in our country."

The case was postponed.