A police officer accused of assaulting actress Lele Ledwaba has been ordered to pay a R12 000 fine or face four months in jail.
Former Johannesburg Metro Police Department officer Trekkie Ayuk Tikhoni was found guilty of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm and another count of malicious damage to property in March this year.
The police officer appeared in the Randburg Magistrates court on Tuesday where she was also ordered to attend anger management courses and 100 hours of community service.
Tikhoni assaulted Ledwaba, who is popular for her character as Pinkie in the SABC2 comedy Stokvel, after stopping her at an intersection in Kyalami.
Ledwaba said she was relieved that the matter is finally concluded but was not satisfied with the sentence.
“This thing of her doing community service and attending anger management I honestly don’t know if it will be able to rehabilitate her. I am actually worried about society and the community she is in especially for her kids to have a mother who can do this to another human being,” Ledwaba said.
She added that she feels the sentencing will do nothing for Tikhoni.
“I actually think she is capable of killing someone. I don’t think she is well. She needs to be kept away from society. I fear for her family and her kids especially. She never even once looked remorseful. There was just this arrogance about how she is an officer and where am I going with this,” Ledwaba added.
“She is just cold and it scares me.”
According to Ledwaba’s court submissions, Tikhoni had stopped a motorist driving ahead of her but quickly let it pass and turned on Ledwaba after recognising her face.
She said Tikhoni bragged to her colleagues, shouting: “look who I have stopped”, before subjecting the actress to an hour-and-a-half of beating and verbal abuse.
Magistrate Nosiphiwo Gcawu found Ledwaba to be a reliable witness who “did not contradict herself and stuck to her version” of events.
Source: Sowetan
