The solemn, somber and tranquil tone of a funeral procession was shattered when the convoy was shockingly halted by armed police officers, who demanded that mourners alight from their vehicles.
Local resident, Craig Naidoo (42), a friend of the son of the deceased, tearfully claimed to the Laudium Sun that the mourning Pillay family had to endure a traumatising ordeal after allegedly being brutalised at the hands of police during a funeral procession last Wednesday (February 28). The family managed to capture the horrifying ordeal on a phone camera before reporting it to the Laudium Sun, Craig added.
Ahead of the burial at the Laudium Cemetery, the Pillay family, together with relatives and friends, were in a convoy including a hearse carrying the body of the late Premie Pillay, en-route from Lotus Gardens to the Bethesda Revival Church in Laudium, for the funeral service.
According to Craig, the family had concluded the formalities at their Lotus Gardens home on Amaranth Crescent and left for Laudium at around 11am; with the immediate family travelling in a VW kombie, driven by the late Premie's son, Kishan, in front of the hearse, and extended families and friends in vehicles behind the hearse.
Craig continued that the convoy was travelling through Pretoria West, and had just passed the Atteridgeville traffic lights, when under the bridge on Quagga Road, a white bakkie driven by a white guy suddenly intercepted them. He went on to detail how the bakkie cut in front of the kombie, before hitting dead brakes, forcing the kombie to do the same. “The kombie had been transporting family members which included a number of children. All of a sudden this white guy climbed out the vehicle, and the next thing there was a whole group of policemen who seemed to jump out from nowhere. I also spotted a police Quantum van parked on the middle kerb.”
Craig explained how members of the police, armed with automatic rifles, then surrounded the kombie forcing the occupants to get out and get down on the ground with their hands on their heads. “It was like a scene from a movie, but this was actually happening and it was happening to innocent family members and young children who were absolutely traumatised by the on-goings. Still, they did as the police demanded,” he said.
Craig said that the police then approached the driver of the kombie who was on the ground and showed him a picture of himself, telling him that they had information that he was carrying an unlicensed firearm. However, when the police searched the driver, they did not find the firearm. Craig went on to say how an aunt in the Pillay family, who had been travelling in one of the cars behind the hearse, stopped the police, who wanted to search the coffin for illegal firearms. “All of us were furious at the disrespect the police were showing and had the cops insisted on opening the coffin, there would have been riots,” Craig said. Meanwhile, the late Premie's granddaughter, who had been travelling in the hearse, just behind the kombie, managed to video record the shocking on-goings on her cellphone. The footage has since gone viral.
Craig further added, “After all that happened, the police then just jumped into their vehicles and drove off without an apology or giving a valid reason as to why they took such drastic measures, including wanting to search the coffin and conducting such a devastating raid on a family during their grieving. This matter should be investigated at the very top. It seems like someone had a personal vendetta against the family and used the police to embarrass them.”
When the Laudium Sun approached the Pretoria West SAPS about the incident, cluster head, Neelan Nunkumar, said that he was unaware of the incident but would definitely investigate the matter further.
Armed police officers held mourning family members down, including children, on Quagga Road, while searching a vehicle. Cellphone Image.
The funeral procession, including the hearse, was stopped by the police. Cellphone Image.
Horrified: Family friend, Craig Naidoo (42).