No arrests in Maselspoort racist attack
Free State police say they are yet to make arrests in the racial attack at the Maselspoort Resort & Conference Centre, outside Bloemfontein.
This follows the assault of two black teenagers by a group of white adult men at the resort on Christmas Day.
In a video that went viral on social media, white males are seen ordering the teenagers out of the pool.
The altercation escalated to the men shoving and grabbing the boys by the throat and pulling their hair.
Police spokesperson Motantsi Makhele says after careful consideration they have changed the investigation from assault to attempted murder.
"Given this first information of crime which was received by the police at that time, the only charges which could be registered were Assault Common and Crimen Injuria.
"It was after obtaining these statements, the docket was presented to the senior state prosecutor who gave a directive that a charge can be changed to Attempted murder given additional facts. The approach of the investigator in this regard as it’s the mandate of the police was to investigate in order to arrest and not to arrest and investigate thereafter."
Makhele says police did not downgrade the crime but were informed by the first statements as obtained from the complainant.
"That was not the end of our investigation, hence the investigator continued to obtain more statements before the docket can be placed before the senior state prosecutor to give further directives as the one having such muscles to decide if after obtaining these additional statements a charge can be changed.
"The docket was received back from the senior state prosecutor with clear directives, the investigator is now working on these directives and we anticipate that the perpetrator or perpetrators will within no time be brought before a court of law to account for this incident."
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