[DEBATE] : FXI: Increasing police repression highlighted yesterday's attack on shack dwellers and ot

[Richard Pithouse]

Media Release: Increasing police repression highlighted yesterday's
attack on 
shack dwellers and other recent cases
12 September 2006
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The Freedom of Expression Institute is becoming extremely concerned at
the 
repression and denial of free expression that many police believe they
have the power 
and right to subject members of the public to. These acts of repression
are always 
illegal.

Over the past few days, three such incidents have been reported to us,
cases of police 
violence against unarmed citizens who have been, in some or other way,
simply 
exercising their constitutional rights. The most recent of these
incidents was the case 
of Durban's shack dwellers' movement, Abahlali base Mjondolo.

The FXI has repeatedly expressed concern about the manner in which the
Regulation 
of Gatherings Act is being implemented, in ways that are illegal and
often 
unconstitutional. Our recent research report on the Act shows that many
of those 
charged with implementing the Act are not even conversant with its
contents. All 
three incidents bear out this contention of ours.

Abahlali baseMjondolo

Yesterday, shack dwellers in the Kennedy Road settlement crammed into a
hall in the 
settlement after hearing that three leaders of the shack dwellers
movement had just 
been beaten up and arrested by police. When they heard from friends who
were with 
the Abahlali leaders at the police station that bail had been refused,
a group of 
women decided to march to the Sydenham police station. The decision was

completely spontaneous and had no prior planning. Of course, it could
not have been 
pre-planned since the arrests took place just a little while earlier.

According to various sources consulted by the FXI, a few minutes after
the shack 
residents moved to the road, police arrived. They reportedly gave no
warning to the 
marchers to disperse and immediately began shooting at the marchers
with rubber 
bullets and live ammunition. Residents claim that police also fired
live ammunition 
into the hall. Anyone seen on the road or moving between the shacks was
shot at, 
residents told the FXI. A woman in her 50s, known as Zinovia, was shot
in both legs. 
The free movement and free expression of the shack dwellers was
severely curtailed 
by police.

Soon after the alleged police attack on the settlement, a group of
about 40 people that 
had gathered outside the Sydenham police station to wait for the
hoped-for release of 
the Abahlali leaders were allegedly attacked by armed police who told
them the 
'gathering' was illegal. Some of those that had gathered there told the
FXI that the 
police prodded them with the weapons and that some police had 'shotguns
and 
machine guns'.

The FXI views the actions of the police both in the Kennedy Road
settlement and 
outside the police station as illegal and unconstitutional. The
attempted march from 
Kennedy Road to the police station was clearly a spontaneous action and
hence no 
notification could be given to the police regarding the march as
required by the 
Regulation of Gatherings Act. The Act does contemplate spontaneous
gatherings and 
specifies how the police should respond to such gatherings as the one
in Kennedy 
Road yesterday. In a case where no notice was given for a gathering,
the police are 
obliged to make all attempts to contact the organisers of the gathering
and negotiate 
how the gathering will proceed.

Even in a case where the police believe 'that the Police will not be
able to provide 
adequate protection for the people participating in such a gathering or

demonstration', the police may notify the convenor, restrict the
gathering to a 
particular place, guide the participants along a safe route.

In cases where the Police have 'reasonable grounds to believe that
danger to persons' 
exists from the gathering, may call on the marchers, in at least two
official languages, 
to disperse. If marchers then do not disperse, the Police have the
authority to disperse 
the marchers with 'the use of force, excluding the use of weapons
likely to cause 
bodily injury or death'.

According to the Act, the only time that police may use weapons such as
firearms 
against a gathering is

    (d) If any person who participates in a gathering or demonstration
or any 
    person who hinders, obstructs or interferes with persons who
participate in a 
    gathering or demonstration-
*   kills or seriously injures, or attempts to kill or seriously
injure, 
    or shows a manifest intention of killing or seriously injuring, 
    any person; or
*   destroys or does serious damage to, or attempts to destroy or to 
    do serious damage to, or shows a manifest intention of 
    destroying or doing serious damage to, any immovable 
    property or movable property considered to be valuable.

The use of firearms in this case is only allowed 'if he (a policeperson
above the rank 
of warrant officer) finds other methods to be ineffective or
inappropriate'. And, even 
then, 'The degree of force which may be so used shall not be greater 
than is 
necessary for the prevention of the actions contemplated in
subparagraphs (d)(i) and 
(ii), and the force shall be moderated and be proportionate to the
circumstances of the 
case and the object to be attained.'

Clearly, the police involved in the operation against Abahlali base
Mjondolo 
yesterday - both in Kennedy Road and at the Sydenham police station -
were in 
violation of these provisions and, thus, acted illegally. Further, they
acted in such a 
manner as to prevent citizens from exercising their constitutional
rights to gather, 
associate and freely express themselves. These actions of police as if
they are above 
the law is an extremely disturbing trend of late in all parts of South
Africa.

SATAWU
On 5 September 2006, Oupa Mbhele, an official of the South African
Transport and 
Allied Workers' Union in Gauteng, was wounded four times in his knees
and lower 
legs and underwent surgery because of an 'unprovoked' attack by police
who shot at 
him with rubber bullets from close range.

According to Satawu, Mbhele had been sent to the scene of a march to
look into 
reports that some Satawu members had been arrested for rowdiness. At
the time of 
the shooting he was asking police officers for the names of those
arrested to verify 
whether they were Satawu members. Satawu officials say another police
officer then 
approached Mbhele, holding a gun, and told him to move. Although Mbhele
tried to 
explain what he was doing, the officer opened fire on him four times.

ORANGE FARM WATER CRISIS COMMITTEE
On 6 September 2006, thousands of residents from Orange Farm (a
township south 
of Johannesburg) blockaded the Golden Highway, a major arterial road in
Gauteng, 
demanding that the Mayor of Johannesburg, Amos Masondo, avail himself
to 
residents in order to address the lack of service delivery in the
township. The police, 
allegedly without warning, opened fire on the crowd with rubber
bullets, hitting a 
woman on her leg and a man in his stomach and injuring 16 other people.
Some of 
those injured were not even part of the blockade, but were hurt when
police allegedly 
entered Orange Farm, blindly shooting at residents in their homes. An
18-year-old 
boy was shot in the stomach while gardening. Orange Farm residents are
unified in 
their anger at the way in which the police responded to their peaceful
gathering. They 
speak with contempt of the behaviour of the police, highlighting the
fact that the 
police opened fire without any warning on a group of protesters that
were doing 
nothing to intimidate them. While the police claim that they were
responding to 
being stoned by the crowd, residents strongly deny this. They point to
the fact that a 
young pregnant woman was shot and that many were shot in the back as
examples to 
prove this. 

These incidents highlight an extremely worrying phenomenon: police that
act outside 
of the law, while claiming to be upholding the law. The result is a
frightening 
environment of repression developing within South Africa, with free
expression 
constantly being in danger - especially the free expression of poor
communities for 
whom their main form of expression is to take to the streets.

For more information, call: 
Na'eem Jeenah (FXI Anti-censorship programme) - 084 574 2674 / 011
403-8403
Simon Delaney (FXI Legal Unit) - 083 397 0057
S'bu Zikode (Abahlali BaseMjondolo) - 083 547 0474



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