Police methods lambasted

Police crowd control methods have again come under the spotlight during the public service strike, with a senior Western Cape trade unionist alleging that police personnel ‘have used more violence against strikers than during apartheid”.

However, Nehawu provincial secretary Suraya Jawoodeen also conceded that union leaders were battling with increasing worker violence during strike action.

Jawoodeen said: ‘The police were on the picket lines before the strikers got there and on the first day of the strike military helicopters were used to circle over Tygerberg Hospital — an incredibly threatening act. It’s crazy to use such tactics against striking workers.”

On Tuesday morning police threw two stun grenades at strikers at Groote Schuur, injuring two women. Workers insisted they had complied with an agreement with hospital management on strikers’ conduct. There is strong evidence that police officers gave strikers 10 minutes to disperse, but threw the grenades long before 10 minutes had elapsed.

Senior medical superintendent at Groote Schuur, Dr Saadiq Kariem, said he was unsure why stun grenades were used. ‘We had an agreement with the unions about where and how they will strike and, as far as I know, workers were within the agreed space.”

This week, police also used teargas and stun grenades to disperse schoolchildren in Nyanga, where they had burned tyres and blocked roads because their mid-year exams were postponed.

Jawoodeen conceded that trade unions are increasingly battling to contain violence during industrial action. ‘Strikes are becoming harder to manage because the levels of desperation among people are so much higher than they used to be. During apartheid we didn’t have up to 40% of the population unemployed. Scabs come from among the unemployed; they’re desperate and will risk their lives to get a job, even for a week or a day.

‘The workers know there’s a massive pool of scabs out there. There is desperation on both sides,” she said.

Jawoodeen also blamed employers for prolonging disputes, saying the government’s attitude was that ‘the longer the strike is dragged out, the more depleted the unions become”.

Cosatu’s Western Cape secretary Tony Ehrenreich blames violence during strikes on new members ‘who don’t understand the culture and discipline of strikes”.

But he also criticised police methods: ‘During this strike they have been very provocative and often unnecessarily violent. It’s seldom necessary to use rubber bullets and stun grenades on protesting people — elsewhere in the world authorities use water cannons. Our cops’ first course of action is violent and that often promotes a violent backlash.”

Insisting that Cosatu’s leaders had repeatedly condemned strike violence and intimidation, Ehrenreich said a picket line is a robust place. ‘Throughout the world people get very unhappy if scabs cross a picket line. But we’re very against violence against them.”

Police spokesperson Captain Elliot Sinyangana denied police had used unnecessary force. ‘Our reports show we’ve acted within the law.

”It’s the crowd’s behaviour and the commander’s decision which determines how police act. If people are not happy with these decisions they must come forward and complain,” he said.