Mondli waka Makhanya
RACIAL tension and frustration at the slow pace of change in the police service led to the revolt by policemen in Cape Town townships.
Coloured and African policemen claim they are exposed to great danger by their white superiors through understaffing at their police stations while those in white areas are overstaffed. They claim this makes them sitting targets for criminals on the prowl for weapons.
The strike was centred on the Delft police station and threatened to spill to other townships as well as prisons and traffic departments. It was precipitated by the murder of Constable Donovan Fillies on Sunday night. He was the third policeman to be killed on the Peninsula over the weekend.
Fillies was killed by four men who raided a satellite police station in Delft in search of arms. Police have since found an abandoned vehicle which they suspect belonged to the gang.
For half the week colleagues have been flying the South African flag at half-mast and have been on strike, demanding reinforcements. The policemen, mostly members of the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union, blockaded roads in the township and on Thursday they marched on parliament to press their demands.
There were a few near-confrontioins when Internal Stabilty Unit members tried to video protesters. The policmen returned to work when regional police minister Patrick McKenzie, known as “Mr Promises”, seconded an additional 40 men to the area, pending further staffing assesments.
At issue is the distribution of policemen in various areas. The townships of Belhar and Delft, with a population of 200 000, are serviced by six policemen at a time. The policemen say white Belville, which has a lower crime rate, has an oversupply of cops.
Police representative Raymond Dowd says staffing is a national problem and staff distribution assessments have shown no imbalances.
The policemen are unsure whether McKenzie has the courage to challenge the white echelons of the Westen Cape police and get them to practise affirmative action. They also have misgivings about McKenzie having chosen Dowd, a former security policeman, as his liaison officer.