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WATCH | Gauteng traffic officer filmed insulting a cellphone store worker

A Gauteng traffic cop is being probed after he was caught on camera seemingly insulting a cellphone store employee.
A Gauteng traffic cop is being probed after he was caught on camera seemingly insulting a cellphone store employee.
Image: Supplied

A senior Gauteng traffic officer is being investigated after he was filmed calling a cellphone store employer “f***ing stupid”.

Gauteng Traffic Police spokesperson Sello Maremane said the force was “deeply concerned by unpleasant remarks made by one of its chief provincial inspectors”.

In the video, the official is seen recording an exchange of words between himself and a woman behind a counter of the cellphone store in Heidelberg.

Maremane said that the officer wasn't permitted to talk to the media at this stage.

The woman could be heard asking him to repeat what he had said to her, seemingly before she started recording her own video.

“Say it again ... So, you tell people that they are bitches and sluts?” the woman is heard saying to the man, who is dressed in full traffic police uniform.

These slurs are not captured in the video, which is circulating on social media.

The man retaliates by telling the woman that he is a customer, and tells her she will lose her job.

“You will lose that job of yours. That R600 that you are earning, you will lose it,” the man is heard saying.

The woman responds by saying that he, too, would lose his job.

The man tells the woman that she should go to school, implying that she is not educated. He then tells the woman that she is “f***ing stupid”.

Maremane said: “The Gauteng Traffic Police wishes to state categorically that this incident will be fully investigated, and we are appealing to the store official to give us a statement detailing the circumstances which led to the argument.

“Law-enforcement officers are expected to conduct themselves in an exemplary manner which is inconsistent with their code of conduct, even when confronted with challenges,” he said.

It was also important that law enforcement officials respect the dignity of the members of the public at all times, he said.

“No law-enforcement official has a right to abuse community members regardless of their status in society and even with provocation. We urge the members of the public to report unruly and unbecoming conduct by any of our members,” said Maremane.

TimesLIVE

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