Police+abuse+against+demonstrators,+COSATU+press+release

COSATU Press, Sun 2006/09/03 12:13 PM
=Police abuse against demonstrators=

The Congress of South African Trade Unions is alarmed at the findings of a draft report by the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) which has found that “legislation to regulate marches and protests is being misused by the authorities to isolate and target groups opposed to the government's macro-economic strategy.”

The report notes "a disturbing pattern where organisations that stridently oppose the government's macro-economic strategy and denounce the continued impoverishment of the masses are finding themselves isolated and targeted by local municipalities and [the government's] law enforcement machinery".

The report is in line with the appeal made this week by COSATU in the Western Cape for parliament to intervene in the controversy over the recent banning of a number of protest marches. The report's researchers say "the processes leading up to a [protest] march are critical because the violence seems to erupt when either the march is banned or the police believe they have a free hand to use all means necessary to break up the march."

“In many instances, the marches were deemed to be illegal because local authorities, in contravention of the Regulation of Gatherings Act, had refused to issue permits for them, and that though the Act holds the notion of a demonstration as a right and not as being contingent on the approval of the state, this right was often not respected by local authorities.”

This report reinforces the concern expressed by the COSATU Central Executive Committee in May 2006 at “the combination of many processes to marginalize any opposition”, including “the arrest of COSATU leaders at the Swaziland border and in Cape Town and the heavy-handed nature of the police dealings with protests”. COSATU affiliates have made similar complaints against police over-reaction against striking municipal and security workers on demonstrations.

The decision by the courts to drop the charges against those arrested at the Swaziland border protests, in one case unconditionally and in the other provisionally, because the state could not put forward a case, also backs up the contention that these COSATU members should not have been arrested in the first place, especially those leaders who were arrested when trying to intervene with the police to prevent trouble.

COSATU is demanding that the charges must also be dropped against those leaders arrested in Cape Town during a security guards’ demonstration. There again organisers were arrested when trying to restore order on the march.

COSATU reiterates its strong condemnation of all these arrests and “the brutal response from the police of a democratic state against peaceful, unarmed protesters” when they opened fire on demonstrators at the Swaziland border posts. As we said at the time, “even if certain bylaws were being infringed, there were numerous other options for resolving any problems which should have been employed, without resorting to force. The police action was reminiscent of the ruthless tactics of the apartheid police, which should now be a thing of the past.”

COSATU has already demanded an exhaustive, top-level investigation into the conduct of the police at these events, to establish exactly what happened and who was responsible for the violence and the arrests. This FXI report strengthens the demand for a broader discussion between government, the SAPS and the labour movement to review the policies and guidelines under which the police operate during political and industrial demonstrations, in order to make sure that such kind of brutality by the police never happens again. Patrick Craven (National Spokesperson)** P.O.Box 1019** Tel: +27 11 339-4911/24**
 * Congress of South African Trade Unions**
 * 1-5 Leyds Cnr Biccard Streets**
 * Braamfontein, 2017**
 * Johannesburg, 2000**
 * SOUTH AFRICA**
 * Fax: +27 11 339-5080/6940/ 086 603 9667**
 * Cell: 0828217456**
 * E-Mail: patrick@cosatu.org.za**

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