NPA spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said: "The case was not withdrawn but never enrolled. The video evidence did not assist in the case. The prosecutor will only prosecute the complaint of crimen injuria which is mentioned in one of the two dockets," he said. Owner of Hank's, Johnny Papadakis, alleged that Logan and Danca outsourced the services of a videographer to edit the video to depict him as an assailant. "The videographer was also the one who posted the video and shared it, for it to go viral and then he deleted it so that it could not be traced back to him," he said. Papadakis said the incident negatively affected their family and business "Our business went down by 60% in revenue, and is not profitable. The business was thriving for seven years. I am a pastor to the homeless. I am not a racist," he said. Logan said the investigating officer shared with him that the case of crimen injuria was still opened, and that summonses were to be prepared soon. "The reports in the media that the cases were withdrawn because I staged the video are in fact false. I have been in contact with the investigating officers, who said it was the assault charges that were dropped, though the crimen injuria docket was still opened and summons would be sent out to the pub's bouncer," he said. The lawyer of the pub owners, William Booth, said the owners were in the process of taking civil action against Christopher Logan for his "baseless" comments. The South African Human Rights Commission SAHRC said they were unaware of allegations that he had fabricated the incident. "The commission has since read media reports about the SAPS investigation that seems to have come to the conclusion of fabrication, however, the commission has not made any finding itself in this regard and will be considering the matter further before coming to any conclusions. "The commission very rarely receives complaints that are fabricated or manifestly untrue. Disputes of fact do arise at times of course, and the commission has many ways of trying to determine the truth whether that be interviewing corroborating witnesses, obtaining documentary or video evidence etc. It depends from case to case ," the SAHRC said.

Source: The Weekend Argus