President Jacob Zuma on Thursday said the African National Congress (ANC) was concerned about police brutality in South Africa, making reference to the killing of protester Andries Tatane in Ficksburg and Jeanette Odendaal in Kempton Park, allegedly at the hands of police.
“We cannot have this culture from police,” Zuma told reporters at Luthuli House in Johannesburg. “I must make it clear that we don’t want people exercising violence on protesters. We condemn it totally. Tatane was just protesting when they beat him to death. It is his right to protest. This is unacceptable and the police will have to correct this way.”
Zuma was confident both killings would not affect the ANC’s election campaign.
“It has not affected the elections because our people know the ANC’s views on these matters.”
The party would deal with problems to “perfect and enrich” democracy.
Televised death
A video of Tatane’s death was broadcast on national television. On Tuesday eight policemen appeared in court in Ficksburg, in the Free State, for the April 13 murder.
Odendaal (45) was shot dead, allegedly by a police sergeant, after she crashed into a police van while trying to park her car outside the Kempton Park police station on Tuesday night.
A car guard allegedly saw a policeman emerge from the station and shoot her as she sat in her VW Golf. The officer was due to appear in the Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court on Friday.
Two other police brutality cases were before KwaZulu-Natal courts on Tuesday. In Greytown five policemen allegedly strangled a person in custody. In Hammarsdale 15 policemen are accused of beating a suspect to death.
Police National Commissioner General Bheki Cele said on Tuesday the country’s 8Â 500 crowd control police officers would get a refresher course in handling protests.
‘Isolated incidents’
Cele’s office insisted on Thursday that recent reports of police brutality were isolated incidents.
“It will be important for us to treat those as isolated incidents instead of bringing them into one issue and cloud the matter around the issue of police brutality,” his spokesperson, Major General Nonkululeko Mbatha, told South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news.
“We cannot obviously deny the fact that in some instances our members act beyond what is expected, which is why … the ICD [Independent Complaints Directorate] will take the process forward.
“In all these examples there are investigations under way,” she added. — Sapa