Police confirm their own incompetence

The scuffle outside the office of the Minister of Police during last week must be regarded as confirmation that AfriForum’s objections to the attitude of the police concerning farm murders have merit. Not only were my two colleagues (Ian Cameron, Head of Community Safety, and Marcus Pawson, Provincial Coordinator for Gauteng South) and I handled roughly by the police, but Bernadette Hall, whose husband had been murdered in front of her on their farm in 2012, was also pushed around by the police. We were furthermore threatened with arrest, apparently for “trespassing” because we attempted to deliver a memorandum to the reception desk at the police headquarters (a public building).

The group of approximately 40 representatives from AfriForum, AfriForum Youth and victims of farm attacks initially had to wait in the street for an hour for a reaction from the office of the Minister. AfriForum had complied with all the statutory requirements for this public meeting, and the Minister and the Tshwane Metro Police were informed of the gathering beforehand – they even responded to our e-mails and phoned us on Monday morning to confirm that we were still coming. However, when we arrived there, a policeman alleged that it was an illegal gathering because we had not followed “protocol” and had never informed the Minister or the metro police of the gathering. We had expected this and had copies of all the necessary evidence there. In reply to this, the team of armed policemen who had been sent to protect the Minister said that somebody would come and receive the memorandum before the end of the day.

However, it rapidly became clear that the Minister did not intend sending anybody to receive the memorandum. That is why we decided to deliver the memorandum to the reception desk. The armed police did not want to know anything about this either. They were so determined to keep us out that they evacuated the building and locked the doors. Eventually a member of security, who had stood around for two hours and tried to get someone from the Minister’s office to receive the memorandum, received the memorandum and undertook to hand it to the Minister.

The rough handling by the police and the refusal to send a representative to receive the memorandum are of major concern. We are currently formulating charges against the Minister of Police, Nkosinathi Nhleko, the National Police Commissioner, General Riah Phiyega, and the Tshwane Metro Police regarding the conduct of their representatives at this gathering.

In the absence of even just a symbolic gesture by Government regarding the necessity for prioritising farm murders, we are left with one of two choices. We must either accept that farm murders simply are not on Government’s radar and accept the status quo, or we must apply even more public pressure, arrange more protests and launch even more international awareness actions.

If we look at it in this way, the choice is easy. The Minister’s attitude with respect to this crisis confirms that we will have to do more to either improve the insight of Government or embarrass the Government internationally concerning the lack of action to protect its own citizens.
Ernst Roets
Ernst is the Deputy CEO of AfriForum
Follow Ernst on Twitter at @ernstroets