Policing – has it changed after liberation?The ANC Limpopo Conference in December 2007 must address the question of police brutality during demonstrations says Cedric Gina.
During the motor and engineering strikes of 2007, hundreds of Numsa members were harassed by Ekurhuleni police.
Some were arrested and are out on bail as we speak, all for peaceful demonstrations in support of a protected strike.
The police are involved in crowd control during strikes. The strike is a very emotional event. It needs to be handled with the utmost care. It is the only weapon that workers have against employers. At the slightest provocation, they react.
For them, it presents an opportunity to “show†the employer how they feel about the day and night robbery that is done by employers.
With the new legislation that forbids wildcat strikes, a protected strike represents a rare opportunity to release anger. Workers engage in strikes with vigour and passion.
Workers are law abiding citizens, they are toilers and the backbone of the economy.
Police conductBut the conduct of police during the Numsa strike raised questions for all workers. It was there for all to see, in the print and electronic media. Numsa members converged on the gates of a Germiston factory.
The strike was a few days old. The workers were there to demonstrate peacefully a the employer’s gate. The police were there to protect the interests of capital.
The workers had not called them. A white worker approached the gate in a forklift. He was carrying barbed wire to block workers' entrance to the premises.
Workers needed access to the company facilities, they tried to prevent the blockage of the gate. All hell broke loose.
Metro Police started shooting with live and rubber bullets. Four workers lay injured, one seriously.As if that was not enough, three workers were arrested and slept in jail.
Caiphus Manana and Stembiso Mthombeni are out on bail of R1000 each, charged with public violence. They appeared in court, were released by the magistrate and are still waiting for a court date, if it will ever come! In Wadeville a white worker, who drove recklessly, leading to the death of a marching metalworker from Nquthu, is not charged with anything.
Numsa organiser, Gift Nkabinde blames the police for a high-handed approach to the peaceful, striking workers.
Police cite imminent danger to the life of a white worker and company property.The toilers in this economy are confused. “Are we a threat to our state?†they ask.
We have seen criminals, we mean real criminals, in the Erkuhuleni metro municipal police service who have been accused of robbery of cash-in-transit vehicles.
No violence was used against them. They are roaming the streets, supplied with VIP protection.
Why this brutality against workers? The lack of transformation in the police services is one main reason.
There are many other reasons, lack of proper training, and ignorance about human rights. The Popcru spokesperson said recently: “all instructors in the police colleges must be given packages†and they must be replaced by “new†transformed instructors who subscribe to the new constitution of the country.
Does the problem lie with untransformed police instructors? This might be one problem.
But research on Israeli soldiers in the Gaza strip in Palestine revealed another: “At one point or another of their service, the majority of the interviewees enjoyed violence.
They enjoyed the violence because it broke the routine and they liked the destruction and the chaos. They also enjoyed the feeling of power in the violence and the sense of danger."
Could this be a reason for our own problems with our police during strikes? The delegates to the policy conference of the ANC only concentrated on where the Scorpions must be located.
Did they do enough? What about ANC delegates who have been on the receiving end of the police brutality? The matter is on the Limpopo agenda, workers must speak out on this brutality. Mayihlome for the debate on this topic in Limpopo.
Cases of police brutality against workers
Arrest of five Cosatu leaders at Golela border Arrest of Cosatu leaders at Oshoek border post The use of rubber bullets at Oshoek border post The shooting of Samwu members in the JHB march Arrest of Tony Ehrenreich, Cosatu Western Cape Secretary during a Satawu march in Cape Town Shooting of Numsa members in Nigel local Shooting of Numsa members in Germiston
Crime exposes xenophobic South AfricansCedric Gina
Lucky Dube, a darling to many workers for his inspiring words of wisdom in his songs, is shot dead in Rosettenville.
The nation is shocked! A few days later, five men are arrested – two South Africans and three Mozambicans. Charges are later withdrawn from another Mozambican married to a South African woman.
A 2001 report by the Institute for Security Studies says that "South Africa has high but manageable levels of property crime but an extraordinarily high level of violent crime.
It is South Africa’s high level of violent crime which sets the country apart from other crime-ridden societies."
A total of 4 766 foreigners from all over the world are languishing in South African prisons. The correctional services department says that of 2 982 sentenced aliens, 1 138 are from Mozambique, 827 from Zimbabwe, 439 from Lesotho, l 104 from Tanzania, and 94 from Nigeria.
Among those awaiting sentencing are 606 Mozambicans, 499 Zimbabweans, 182 Nigerians and 114 Tanzanians.
At Dube's memorial service in Newtown, a member of the music fraternity speaks: “Foreigners are responsible for the death of Lucky Dube,†agitating the throngs of Dube music lovers who are inside and outside the venue.
The programme director intervenes; “we cannot say that foreigners killed him, arrested people are still suspects.â€
Was the member of the music fraternity xenophobic? One might say that, but the reality is that community members are feeling like she felt. People argue that South African criminals would not have killed Lucky Dube.
Even available statistics do not help in the debate. They do not stipulate how many foreign nationals are jailed because of having committed serious crimes rather than just for being illegal immigrants.
Analysts say the dearth of these statistics makes it difficult to say whether claims that foreigners are responsible for the majority of serious and organised crimes in South Africa are true or mere speculation.
A senior Cabinet member in 2006 pointed out that “the recent spate of crimes, allegedly committed by foreign nationals in South Africa, has prompted some people to blame crime in general on immigrants."
He countered that "a visit to our correctional centres proves this to be false…. whenever crime is committed by foreign nationals, they are in cahoots with South Africans."
He also remarked that foreign criminals seem to "have exposed dangerous levels of xenophobia among many South Africans… The fact that there are many South Africans imprisoned in other African countries, south east Asia and the Americas for drug-related and other crimes does not mean that South Africans living in those countries are perforce criminals.
It would be unfair if the rest of us were judged abroad by the actions of a coterie of criminals who happen to share our nationality."
He urged people to "treat criminals the same, be they South African or not. Crime is not worse when committed by somebody you regard as a foreigner and better when committed by a local.
These are human rights issues. We must be tolerant and accommodating of immigrants, and they must respect our laws.
We must be intolerant of crime, whether committed by locals or foreigners.†Numsa has a resolution that prohibits its members from being xenophobic.
What does this resolution mean to a worker who has lost a loved one through the trigger pulled by a foreigner?
This is not an easy one. Numsa must intensify its campaign to prohibit xenophobia amongst its ranks and society at large. Like racism, xenophobia is a pernicious crime against humanity.
Source
Numsa News