Two churchmen and a party of theology students have accused riot police of behaving ”like wild dogs” after seeing the dispersal of a protest in Richmond, Natal, in which a 16- year-old girl was killed and two others injured. John Green, the head of the Anglican parish of Richmond-cum-Byrne, a visiting Dutch Reformed minister from Stellenbosch, and the students made the claims after witnessing riot police disperse 700 pupils at a demonstration on Tuesday this week.
One of the students in Green’s party said they now understood what rebel police Lieutenant Gregory Rockman meant when he said riot police had behaved ”like wild dogs” in Mitchells Plain earlier this month. ”That’s exactly what we saw,” he said. Lawyers investigating the Richmond incident said they were concerned that the police report on the incident specifically stated there were no injuries while police later confirmed to journalists that three pupils had been hurt, one of whom died later. The lawyers said there were also significant differences between the police statement and what the church people claimed they saw. In his affidavit on the incident, Green said there appeared to be an argument between the pupils and the warrant officer who seemed to be in charge. Green said he had been told that the warrant officer was struck on the head by a rock, which, it was assumed, came from the crowd.
According to Green the warrant officer was clearly angry, but was able to ”keep control of himself”. Shortly afterwards military vehicles arrived and began to escort the crowd away from the town. The ministers and students followed and saw that there was no violence in the march. Although there were some taunts, no stones were thrown and the situation never appeared out of hand. Suddenly a mini bus ”burst through the ranks of the SADF vehicles” and almost immediately tear gas canisters and shotguns were fired, Green said. A yellow Land Cruiser arrived and ”at that stage chaos descended”.
Green said there was a volley of shots and students ran in all directions, mainly into bush along the side of the road. He said he heard what appeared to be the sound of ”small-arms fire” and was concerned at how long the shots continued. From the top of a hill Green and his party could see police chase students through the bush and later saw some people carrying a youth bleeding from the back of his head. Green then went to a senior police officer and said he wanted to make a formal protest about what he had seen. Green said he would be sending copies of his statement to Law and Order Minister Adriaan Vlok and to the divisional commissioner.
The police’s own report said pupils had gathered at the police station to demand the release of certain persons. They were warned to disperse but instead stones were thrown and a police warrant officer was struck on the head. He was then pulled into the crowd and assaulted. ”The group then began marching but were halted by security force members. ”Tearsmoke and stun-grenades were used to disperse them. However, when the mob began throwing stones, birdshot was used. ”Police arrested 34 people. No injuries were reported as a result of police action.”
A police spokesman in Pretoria, Major Marius Bonthuys, later confirmed the death of Ntokozo Ngcobo, 16, and the injury of two others in the Richmond protest. He said he did not know why the original report denied that anyone had been injured and added that he could not confirm that the injuries were necessarily inflicted by the police. He said he could not comment further on Green’s allegations.
This article originally appeared in the Weekly Mail.
