Pierre du Bois
A former human rights commissioner has accused police of harassing people working near Parliament and blocking access to their workplaces during the opening of Parliament last Friday.
After a row with office workers, police allegedly planted barricades in front of the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa) building on Spin Street in Cape Town.
Former commissioner Rhoda Kadalie is executive director of the Impumelelo Trust, housed in the Idasa building. When she objected to the placing of barricades, she says: “The barricades were deliberately smashed into my face, breaking my spectacles.” She says people were not allowed to leave the building for three hours. Kadalie says when people were walking around on the streets again she tried to go to an optometrist, “only to be prevented once again by the police”, but only briefly.
“While my glasses were being fixed the police taunted me from outside, shouting all kinds of abuse,” says Kadalie.
Once the glasses had been repaired, “three big white men blocked my attempt to go back to my offices, threatening to arrest me and physically manhandling me. I broke free from their grip and ran across to my offices.”
Kadalie maintains while she and others were being trapped, workers in an adjacent state building were allowed unhindered access.
Kadalie has since laid a complaint at the Caledon Square police station, where she was told it would be referred to the Independent Complaints Directorate.