SA Woman Videos Metro Cops Holding Her “Hostage”

In the latest on the controversial roadblocks in South Africa, driver Sylvia Thomaides Argyroula Spandagou posted a video to Facebook on Friday while she was allegedly being held hostage by Metro Police.

She said at the time: “I am held hostage by METRO POLICE for allegedly crossing the yellow line on the Woodmead highway towards PTA!!!!!!!!!!” By ‘hostage’, she meant that they took her driver’s license (for an hour and a half) so she could not leave.

In the video Spandagou claims she never crossed the yellow line. She said afterwards that thank goodness her life was not in danger “but being alone in this volatile situation, I opted to post the video for protection. I have friends in this area.” (She didn’t realise the video was on public settings.)

Although the video has since been removed, SAPeople did watch it. During the filming, two of the cops could be seen videoing Spandagou while she filmed them.

The video went viral as South Africans have become increasingly outraged with similar incidents, as featured in an episode of Carte Blanche last month.

Elsa Tzouganatos responded to Spandagou’s post, sharing the tragedy of her son Raymond who was allegedly “killed as a result” of refusing to pay one of these type of “bribes”, she said.

Raymond was reportedly on his way home from work on the evening of 28 June when he came upon a roadblock in Doornfontein and refused to stop. He was apparently then shot at. On a petition page, it’s claimed the police changed the story several times from it being an accident, hijacking, shootout to him doing a u-turn and driving back into oncoming fire.

Tzougantos said: “No one should be pulled over on a free way to start with. The STOP and TAKE brigade didn’t expect you to act like that. They thought you will be a good girl give them a coke and kfc and be off. Your wallet a little thinner their’s a bit fuller. I am very very relieved that this happened to you on an open freeway with so many people driving by. It could have been a total different scenario if they caught you on a dark empty road. Or alone with no one to witness… They normally get away with murder. This time not. It is an illegal road stop…”

Carte Blanche examined the legality of some roadblocks, unsupervised roadside stops and the power of the police to stop and detain motorists. In an in-depth report in August, the current affairs programme investigated the claims by thousands of South African drivers of unlawful abuse by officials soliciting bribes… as the question was asked: are roadblocks a crime prevention measure or just another way to extort money from fearful motorists?

Spandagou claimed on Saturday that the Metro cops appeared to get a “joy” out of bullying her, and that the problem is authority being given to poorly trained people. She was congratulated by many on social media for standing up to the intimidation, for drawing attention to the issue, and for keeping herself safe by making the incident public.

Spandagou says she finally got her license back after waiting 90 minutes… but “opted to stay longer and wait for the police”, whom she says were “professional and resolved the situation”.

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