A Port Elizabeth man who was mauled by a police dog at the weekend – and then told it was a case of mistaken identity – has laid a complaint against the police officers involved.
Thomas Senyantsi, 43, said he had woken up at about 6am on Saturday to noises outside his flat in Cape Road and, when he opened the door to investigate, police officers had allegedly set a white police dog on him.
He was bitten on his legs and hands.
“I was sleeping when I heard noises outside and a knock.
“I went to open the door and a police officer set his dog on me,” he alleged.
He claimed further that the police had simply stood by and watched as the dog attacked him.
Senyantsi said he had tried to fight the dog off before a police officer eventually rescued him when they realised he was not the person they were after.
“The other officer told me that they had come to the wrong flat and I was not the person they were looking for.”
He said one of the police officers told him that they had received a complaint and camera footage of a Rastafarian man allegedly trying to break into a flat in his neighbourhood.
“I couldn’t understand why they let the dog attack me and only when it’s done they explain to me what was going on,” he said.
He said as the police left, he took photographs of their van and registration number.It was then that a few officers had returned.
“When they saw that I was taking down details of their car, they came back to talk and offered to take me to a hospital for treatment,” he said.
He was taken to Livingstone Hospital, where he received stitches as well as painkillers and injections for infection and rabies, before being driven back to his flat by the police.
Senyantsi’s roommate, Monki Malapo, 35, said he had been in the bathroom when he heard a commotion and a dog barking outside.
“I went out and saw him battling with the dog.”
Senyantsi said he was not satisfied with the explanation.
“What they did was inhumane, they did exactly what the apartheid police used to do to us,” he said.
Senyantsi laid an assault complaint at the Kabega Park police station on Monday.
“I demand justice. I want all those police officers to be arrested and prosecuted for what they did to me,” he said.
Police spokeswoman Colonel Priscilla Naidoo confirmed that the matter was being investigated.