Members of the Landless People’s Movement (LPM) arrested on election day in Thembelihle informal settlement near Lenasia, south of Johannesburg, were granted bail in the Protea Magistrate’s Court on Thursday.
LPM spokesperson Mangaliso Kubheka said 60 activists were granted R300 bail after spending Wednesday night in the holding cells. They were charged with contravening electoral laws. Kubheka said some LPM members were ”subjected to interrogation, harassment and physical violence last night while in prison”.
He said statements were made to the Independent Complaints Directorate and the LPM would be laying charges against police officers involved.
”The LPM will not be intimidated by the ongoing repression that has been the response of the state to the organisation of the landless since the launch of the movement in 2001,” he said.
On Wednesday the LPM condemned the arrests and claimed the police action denied the organisation’s members their fundamental right to freedom of expression and the right to engage in lawful political activity.
The demonstration formed part of LPM’s ”No land, no vote” election boycott campaign, which, according to Kubheka, would ”deliver a resounding warning to political leaders over the country’s land crisis”. He said the LPM would not celebrate 10 years of democracy while the voice of the poor had not been heard, evictions from farms continued and less than 3% of the land has been redistributed.
The Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF) on Thursday said charges against the arrested LPM members of violating the Electoral Act were ”trumped-up and politically motivated … As has now become crystal clear, the LPM members were simply engaged in a legitimate organisational/political meeting in the community of Thembelihle that in no way interfered with the electoral process and violated no law.
”The APF stands side-by-side with our LPM comrades … We are facing an ANC-controlled state and its repressive apparatus that are clearly intent on smashing our movements organisationally, criminalising our legitimate exercise of basic civil rights, and denying the urban and rural poor basic services, socio-economic equality and human dignity. While the ANC celebrates its electoral victory and the evident ‘triumph of democracy’, and while the media and corporate capital trip over themselves in their now predictable cheerleading roles, millions of poor and landless continue to be denied real democracy.”
Police said they were aware of the allegations but no formal complaint had been laid with the authorities.
”The complainants need to make a formal statement before the matter can be investigated. Unfortunately, you and I cannot complain on their behalf, they need to do it themselves,” said Gauteng police spokesperson, Director Faizel Kader.
He added that the LPM members could approach police oversight bodies such as the Independent Complaints Directorate to lay a complaint if they so wished.