Pricilla Mukokobi
Playwriter, producer and film director, Vickson Hangula will have his second appearance in the magistrate’s court on 23 September, facing charges of obstruction of justice and assaulting a police officer.
This comes after Hangula was arrested while filming the demolition of illegal shack dwellers in Okahandja to get footage for his forthcoming documentary.
Hangula told unwrap.online that all hell broke loose one afternoon after receiving a phone call that police and municipal authorities were destroying shacks in Okahandja.
Like all the days, he said he took his camera to capture the demolitions for his production.
“All of the sudden and without any wrongdoing on my part, a group of about 25 members of the Police Task Force descended on me, asking me to stop filming the municipal bulldozers and municipality officers razing to the ground some structure.”
“ My protestations that there is no law against filming in public spaces was met with them manhandling, slapping me and the confiscation of my filming equipment and cellphone. I was arrested on the spot and detained,” he said.
Vickson was later arrested and temporarily detained at Okahandja police station before being released on warning and given a court appearance date of this month.
“I was then hauled up to a jail cell, where I got tossed into the darkroom with 24 other trial awaiting inmates. Yo! my utmost horror, I was the only one with a mask in there,” he said.
He added that “I only learned later what had transpired after the call to August Maletsky. It appears that the no-nonsensical Maletsky had immediately taken to Facebook calling on the President, chief of police and the police at Okahandja to release me immediately. No wonder the police officers had suddenly turned very friendly while I was being released,” he
concluded.