‘Cop smashed my son’s face’

Kimberley - A Homevale High School matriculant, who was left with a broken right jaw when a police officer allegedly hit him with a beer bottle for urinating against his wheel, underwent emergency surgery at Kimberley MediClinic on Tuesday.

Ruanre Buys, 18, was allegedly assaulted by the police officer and two of his friends after he urinated on the police officer’s vehicle.

The incident happened in Roodepan over the weekend and the police officer, who was in a nearby tavern, was off duty at the time.

“It is unthinkable that a police officer could smash my child’s face like that. He could have killed him,” the boy’s mother, Michelle Buys, told the DFA.

She said that the incident happened while her son and two of his friends were walking to a shop in the area.

“My son’s friends entered the shop and he apparently stayed behind and urinated on the tyre of the police officer’s vehicle.

“The officer walked out of a tavern (located opposite the shop) and hit my son with a beer bottle, which was still full at the time. The officer’s two friends also jumped in and attacked him,” Buys said.

According to the boy’s mother, her son’s friends came out of the shop and they tried to pull him away from the three men, but the police officer kept beating him.

Her son immediately contacted her after the incident.

“Because I live in Beaconsfield and he stays with my mother in Roodepan, he called me from home to tell me about the incident. I called my mother to check up on him and she found him sitting in front of the TV crying. We immediately took him to hospital,” Buys said.

She added that she was worried that her son would fall behind on his school work as a result of him being in hospital.

“They are writing examinations and I am worried that he is missing out,” Buys said.

She has opened a case against the police officer.

Denise Coetzee, a spokeswoman for Kimberley MediClinic, confirmed that Buys was admitted with a fractured mandible (right jaw).

“He is in a stable condition,” she said.

The Northern Cape police refused to comment on the incident and referred the DFA to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID).

The national spokesman for the IPID, Moses Dlamini, on Tuesday said that he was not yet aware of the incident.

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