Private Prosecution Unit questions the lack of urgency in Pierre de Vos’s investigation

4 November 2022 

AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit has written to National Police Commissioner Fani Masemola to register a formal complaint about how the allegations of criminal conduct by Pierre de Vos are being handled. More than six weeks after the complaint was filed, the case had not yet been assigned to an investigator. Instead, the SAPS were juggling the case docket between different police stations.

De Vos is alleged to have distributed child pornography in contravention of the Film and Publications Act when content, purportedly depicting a young boy being sexually abused by an adult man, which allegedly depicts, was retweeted on his Twitter account. De Vos has publicly stated that his account was hacked.

The complainant, René van der Vyver, spokesperson for AfriForum Youth, reported the case on 21 September 2022 to the Humewood Police Station in Gqeberha. That afternoon she received a text message from the police confirming the case had been registered. Minutes later, another text message from the police stated that the case had been transferred to Rondebosch Police Station in Cape Town.

On 13 October Van der Vyver received a call from a person at Lyttelton Police Station in Centurion, saying the case would be referred to the correct police station for investigation.

In the letter to Masemola, Private Prosecution Head, Adv. Gerrie Nel, says: “This deplorable and lethargic response to a complaint is not unknown to the citizens the SAPS are entrusted to serve. Therefore, whilst not difficult to believe, we stand aghast at the keenness of the national police service and its management to focus on administrative ‘case registration’ whilst abandoning the core constitutional obligations of investigating crimes reported to the SAPS.

“This office was created to deal with selective prosecution to ensure that justice is done and that equality before the law is entrenched. We submit that we are now confronted with either selective investigation or downright incompetence by the SAPS in the bungling of our client’s complaint and refusal to investigate the identified suspect, Mr Pierre de Vos,” said Nel in the letter.

The Private Prosecution Unit sent the letter to the police during the week of the Presidential Summit on Gender-Based Violence. Pres. Cyril Ramaphosa told delegates and guests: “As a society, ending violence against women and children cannot be anything but our foremost priority.”

Coincident with our complaint, Van der Vyver received another computer-generated SMS indicating that the case had gone full circle and was back at the Humewood Police Station and that an investigator had now been appointed.

“These sudden developments raise our concerns about what exactly the SAPS have done over the last six weeks regarding the reported criminal case and investigation thereof. The unit is hopeful the SAPS will take our complaint seriously and put into action the President’s commitments to eradicate gender-based violence and sexual offences,” says Barry Bateman, spokesperson for the Private Prosecution Unit.

Issued by Barry Bateman, Communications Manager: Private Prosecution Unit, AfriForum, 4 November 2022