Proposed action to force the National Prosecuting Authority to drop charges against ANC president Jacob Zuma will not get the backing of the police or its unions.
KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson Director Phindile Radebe said: ”We are essential services. Anything that will disrupt our duties to the community cannot be allowed.”
Radebe said she had not seen a news report that claimed the ANC planned to embark on rolling mass action, which according to the Mercury newspaper, included sit-ins, and pickets at courts and police stations across KwaZulu-Natal.
She was also not aware if permission had been granted for the staging of marches and would comment once she had more details.
Normal operations at these institutions could be disrupted, the newspaper report said. The plan was apparently hatched at a meeting of delegates from ANC branches in the eThekwini region on Thursday, held to discuss matters ahead of Zuma’s next appearance in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on September 12.
On Sunday, ANC eThekwini chairperson John Mchunu said rolling mass action would involve ”courts, police stations and… all these areas”.
According to the report, the mass action would include pickets, sit-ins and marches at all courts and police stations in KwaZulu-Natal. It would start on Friday and include the ANC’s allies such as the Congress of South African Trade Unions, the South African Communist Party, as well as ”everyone in society”.
Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union national spokesperson Benzi Soko said he was not aware of the planned protest action.
”Police officers are by law not allowed to embark on industrial action. As stipulated in the Constitution, we are an essential service. We respect the Constitution.”
Soko said a recent labour court judgement had ruled that police were an essential service and therefore barred from engaging in industrial action.
On September 12, Judge Chris Nicholson is set to hand down his ruling on Zuma’s application to have the National Director of Public Prosecutions’ decision to prosecute him declared unlawful.
His application for a permanent stay of prosecution is due to be heard on November 27 and 28.
His co-accused, Thint Holdings (Southern Africa) and Thint, will have their application for a stay of prosecution heard on November 25 and 26. – Sapa