Human Rights Day:  We need a judicial commission of inquiry into police brutality

Note to Editors:  This extract is based on a speech delivered by the DA leader at a Human Rights Day celebration in Sharpeville.

We are in Sharpeville today to make sure that the men, women and children who paid the ultimate price in the struggle for freedom and equality are never forgotten.

This includes the 69 people who lost their lives fifty-three years ago, only a few kilometres from where we are standing, after police opened fire on protestors who were marching against the pass laws imposed by the apartheid government.

Many regard this day as the first major turning point in the struggle to end apartheid in South Africa.

But this day also has a different meaning for members of the Sharpeville community who witnessed the brutal violence carried out by police officers against unarmed civilians.

We are honoured to be joined by one of these community members today, Mrs Mampinga Ndamane, who is 96 years old and has 14 great grandchildren. She vividly remembers this tragic event and I would like to share her story with all of you here today.

Mrs Ndamane participated in a march in the area the night before the massacre and can recall that she didn't sleep that night. Early the following morning, the municipal police who were called "Green Beans" by the community because of their green uniforms demanded that everyone who had participated in the march must report to the Sharpeville police station. Mrs Ndamane's husband, cousin and two sons headed to the station and she followed and stood on the outskirts of the crowd that had already gathered and included small children.

All of a sudden she heard guns firing and water cannons being used on the crowd and she immediately started looking for her family members. Once she had located her cousin and sons she went home to cook food for her children but did not know the whereabouts of her husband. She saw three tanks entering the area and heard more shooting. Mrs Ndamane returned to the police station and found a gruesome scene. Bodies littered the ground and she witnessed a policeman walking between them fatally shooting survivors. She could not find her husband but thankfully, he returned home a little while later.

While Mrs Ndamane and her loved ones were lucky to escape with their lives, they and hundreds of others still carry with them the gruesome images they witnessed on that fateful day.

It is critical, however, that these memories are passed down to future generations so that we ensure that we honour the victims and the survivors by doing everything we can to uphold and protect the human rights they fought for and which are enshrined in the Constitution.

Crucially, our Bill of Rights states that everyone has the right to freedom and security, which includes the right to be free from all forms of violence from either public or private sources. The Constitution also lays down that the South Africa Police has a responsibility to protect and secure citizens and to prevent anything that may threaten the safety and security of any community.

It is clear that our Constitutional negotiators wanted to make sure that a massacre like the one that took place here in Sharpeville never happened again.

It is therefore tragic that we now face an equally serious problem of increasing incidents of police brutality across our country.

Many have compared the Marikana tragedy last August, where 34 protestors were shot dead by the police, to what happened here 53 years ago.

Most of us here today also read about the brutal assault by police officers of Emidio Macia that took place in Daveyton and which, resulted in his death in a police cell. Less than a week ago, the press reported on another incident in Lomanyaneng in the North West Province, where a police officer in a vehicle allegedly grabbed a court interpreter by the neck and dragged 100m down the road.

But these cases represent only a handful of the hundreds of citizens who are killed each year at the hands of the police. In 2011/2012, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) received 4 923 against the SAPS. Of these, 720 were deaths.

The increasing brutal acts committed by the police and the high crime rates across the country have resulted in many South Africans losing faith in the SAPS.

This is why the Democratic Alliance has called on President Jacob Zuma to establish a Judicial Commission of Inquiry into pervasive police brutality.

We have already taken a similar step where we govern in the Western Cape. I, in my capacity as Premier of the province, established a Commission of Inquiry into allegations of police inefficiency in Khayelitsha and of a breakdown in relations between the community and the police in the area at the end of last year following a request I received from a group of civil organisations representing community members.

Sadly, instead of seeing it as an opportunity to work with us to improve policing, the National Minister of Police Nathi Mthethwa has stated that he will go all the way to the Constitutional Court to stop the work of the Commission.

I can only hope that while commemorating the events that took place over 50 years ago and hearing the stories of survivors including, Mrs Ndamane, President Zuma will recognise the importance of moving beyond party politics and doing everything possible to protect citizens from police brutality and the abuse of power.

I therefore urge President Zuma to immediately establish a Judicial Commission of Inquiry into policing countrywide, so that we protect and uphold the rights that the 69 victims of the Sharpeville massacre fought and lost their lives for.

Issued by the DA, March 21 2013

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