On behalf of my 18 year old son: He was arrested at a roadblock for possession of Cannabis. Him and 3 friends were travelling to a private birthday party with an Uber. The uber was stopped in the roadblock. Subsequently, all the occupants of the vehicle were ordered out of the vehicle and searched. 

He was not searched by a police officer but searched by a very young CPF (community policing forum) member with “Afriforum” text on his private clothing. My son did not consent to a search. A small amount of Cannibis, about enough to roll 2 (max 3) joints was discovered in his pocket. Other occupants were also found to have been in possession of small amounts each.

He was arrested and detained in the police van amongst drunk drivers with NO MASKS, etc all detained at the roadblock.

He grows his own 3 plants here at home, he does not buy. He is not a professional grower so the plants actually give very little bud.

The amount the CPF chairman showed me at the police station (that was confiscated from him) was literally barely enough to roll 2 joints for the night.

It was not weighed or documented at the police station. 

The CPF members were all wearing Afriforum bibs.

This chairman made assumptions of the law, like stating (his) fact that you can only grow and smoke it in a property if you own, not rent the property. Etc. The police were arrogant and controlling, brutal and overly disrespectful. Simply set in the charges and not willing to talk about the matter or attempt to resolve what the Cannabis was for. They simply pushed for the possession charge regardless. They were not at all interested in the legal documents I tried to show them.

The Colonel constantly walked me to quiet alleyways at the police station, sending others away. Clearly preparing to solicit a bribe. I never gave him the opportunity, constantly “pleading poverty”. That’s also how I convinced him to let him out on free bail. I do have money, but said I have no money to pay bail. This is when he backed off the questions of “what can we do about this?”

Suspects in that prefab room that were arrested at the roadblock were left unattended for minutes at a time, with an exit 10m from the street. Any and all arrested suspects could have got up and walked out while police officers were slouched and relaxing in chairs in the front charge office. 

Everytime I tried to speak to any officer and show the High Court ruling regarding the decriminalization of marijuana possession in private, I received a tongue lashing and was told to take it to the courts. Not one officer had a clue.

To end. My son was searched and arrested by a private citizen wearing an Afriform bib, being at a maximum age of about 20 years old.

This is his son’s version of the story:

We were driving in an Uber on main Reef road on the way to a birthday party in Boksburg Witfield. The roadblock was on Main Reef Rd, Witfield, Bolsburg. We went towards an intersection and there was a road block happening, and they didn’t pull us over, then at the intersection we turned right, and as we turned one police officer pulled us over and there were 3 CPF members with the police officer. They asked us to get out of the vehicle, we got out the car and I walked to the wall where one of the CPF members said I must go put my hand against the wall.

He then patted me down and instructed me to empty out my pockets, So I took my phone out, my earphones, and a small amount of Marijuana. The CPF member called the police officer and showed him the Marijuana, then the CPF member told me I’m under arrest and he took me by the back of my pants to the police vehicle and put me in the back of the vehicle. I sat in the back of that vehicle on main Reef road for more than 2 hours with other people that got arrested for other reasons such as drinking and driving.

It was fully packed in the back of the vehicle and nobody had masks on. In those 2 hours in the back of the vehicle my friends that were with me in the Uber also got searched and a different police officer searched because two of my friends were girls and a female officer searched them, and she found 2 full bags of Marijuana on one of my friends, and the police officer offered a bribe of R500 to her, thereafter all my friends went home and I was in the back of the vehicle. 

Eventually we left to the Boksburg North police station. When we got there we were walked to a wooden documents room, I got told to sit on the far side of the table and I sat there quietly while they were being rude and raising their voices unreasonably. Eventually after other people finished their dockets, I was told to sit next to the officer that arrested me and he instructed me to sign a few forms which I don’t know what I signed as I wasn’t told anything else besides to sign. 

Then I was taken inside the police station to a room in the corner of the police station where another police officer took over from that point and he also instructed me to sign a few forms which I also didn’t know what I signed, besides the court summons, that is the only one that was explained to me properly, to be at court on time. 

They took mug shots from a cell phone and my finger prints, Then I sat there and waited for bail, Which the person that fetched me spoke to the police officer about and got free bail for me… Thereafter I left and went home, It was close to 12pm at the time, I was drained, so was everyone else who was involved.

I am not done with Boksburg CPF and Afriforum. Every time they hold “joint operations”, there are always 7 narcotics arrests! Always the exact same number??? Like they have a quota to make for their facebook page!