A South African Police lieutenant this week accused riot police of causing unrest by their ”brutal, unprofessional conduct” and said many of his colleagues shared his views. Lieutenant Gregory Rockman, 30, of the Mitchells Plain police station, said he could not remain silent in the face of ”innocent people and bystanders” being beaten by riot police ”acting the exact role of oppressors. ”Our people have been oppressed enough. It’s time somebody comes forward and speaks about police brutality,” he told the Weekly Mail.
There were hundreds of policemen like him, who saw their credibility in the communities they served undermined by the actions of the riot police. ”But they’re scared to talk because regulations bind them” said Rockman. ”I’m not willing for the regulations to bind me any further. I’m defying them.” As he spoke, a police helicopter clattered overhead, its searchlight scything through the night sky. Arcing teargas canisters flared overhead. Mitchells Plain’s streets were aflame in the blaze of countless barricades. It made a bizarre contrast with the scene at the polling booth where Rockman was on duty – where young women in blazers and boaters waited to welcome voters.
The son of a machinist, he told how he became a policeman 12 years ago ”because I wanted to be of some use to my community. I couldn’t see them being raped and killed. ”But I’m Mt prepared to take part in the oppressor’s role,” he said. As crime prevention officer in Mitchells Plain he had monitored the situation ”from the word go”. ”The riot police units started this unrest in Mitchells Plain,” he said. ”Crowds just standing there peacefully and being teargassed, policemen going on to school grounds, beating kids just for no reason, going into classrooms, taking out kids just to their liking … ” His decision to speak out ”was a long time coming”.
But an incident on Tuesday, when a small group of pupils were dispersed by riot squad members during a placard demonstration in Mitchells Plain town centre, made him realise he could no longer remain silent. He said he was the first policeman on the scene of the ”peaceful, harmless” demonstration. Rockman warned them in terms of the Emergency regulations and gave them 20 minutes – until 10am – to disperse. A squad of riot policemen arrived and he explained what he’d done, asking them to move out of sight, which they did. As he rounded a building he was called by one of the protesters who told him police were beating them. ”It was another group of riot police who had come from somewhere else and they just started beating the kids -and I stopped them, I couldn’t take what they were doing, I ordered them to leave and they came back with a lieutenant. ”He wanted to query my decision. I told him I was in control of the situation and he left.”
Rockman said that just after 10am, as the crowd was starting to disperse, the riot police returned and stormed the crowd, ”beating everybody. ”There were innocent bystanders there, the police were hitting like mad, they were falling over each other the way they were trying to get to the people. While people were running away they were beating them, just hitting (people) over their heads. They couldn’t care. Rockman intervened again. This time he was taken to a Major Brazelle who was sitting in his van. ”I said to him I gave the people time and you just came and messed up everything. He said ‘I’ve got nothing to say to you’.”
Rockman said he then left and told the crowd to disperse. The police then withdrew to a nearby bus terminus, but again they charged crowds of curious onlookers · who had gathered. A woman waiting for a bus was set upon by four policemen, he said. ”They just hit her and hither.” When the police withdrew he saw a man of about 45 who had collapsed. ”They didn’t help him … I radioed for an ambulance.” While he was ”dialoguing” with the crowd he was again summoned to Brazelle who told him: ”Jy beter uit daai fokken crowd kom of anderste sluit ek jou toe onder die noodregulasies” (You better come out of that crowd or I’ll lock you up under the Emergency regulations).
Later he was summoned to a meeting with the divisional commissioner of police in the Western Cape, Major General Philippus Fourie. ”I was shocked the way the man attacked me with that real boer attitude. He said, ‘Wat mors jy in Major Brazelle se werk’. I explained I was on the scene and they messed in my work. My colonel intervened … he said he felt the same way I felt. ”I told the general I wanted to put on record that the riot unit caused the unrest in Mitchells Plain … that it was through their brutal unprofessional conduct that this unrest is prevailing now.”
Married, with a six-month-old baby daughter and a boy of six, Rockman said he expected to lose his job. ”I don’t care whether they lock me up or what they do. They can do as they please but that won’t change me ”For the riot police- most of them are white – it’s a case of hulle is maar hotnots die en ons slat hulle net uitmekaar uit (they’re just hottentots and we’ll beat them.”
