TheConstitution of South Africa protects all basic political freedoms. However, there have been many incidents of political repression,[1] dating back to at least 2002,[2] as well as threats of future repression in violation of this constitution leading some analysts,civil society organisations and popular movements to conclude that there is a new climate of political repression[3][4][5] or a decline in political tolerance.[6]
It has been argued that repression peaked during the period of theJacob Zuma presidency, with some analysts linking the increase in repression to the influence of the 'security cluster' under theJacob Zuma presidency.[7][8] It has been argued that Zuma "enhanced the coercive capacity of the state"[9] and that he focused on "building a state based on fear".[10] It has also been argued that repression has affected poor people's organisations most seriously but that repression directed against poor people has been systemically under-reported in the media.[11]
Serious concern has been expressed aboutpolice brutality in South Africa.[12][13] Sipho Hlongwane, writing inBusiness Day, has argued that "South Africa is a brutal police state."[14] According toGreg Marinovich "The police are acting with impunity. Their political masters are acting with impunity. In the South Africa of 2012, if you are poor and without political clout, you are on your own."[15]Amnesty International has expressed serious concerns about brutality, includingtorture and extrajudicial killings, at the hands of the police in South Africa.[16][17]Ronnie Kasrils has argued that there has been a "descent into police state depravity" underJacob Zuma.[18] It has been observed that "Torture is routine practice in South Africa's police stations and prisons".[19]
The country also has a serious problem with political assassinations.[20]
It has been claimed that senior ANC politicians are responsible for the repression of grassroots activists.[21] In 2012 BishopRubin Phillip said that "a dark night is settling over our country as the light of our democratic dawn dims".[22]
There have been a number of reports of serious intimidation of journalists.[30] In 2007 the Freedom of Expression Institute andThe Mercury newspaper reported a death threat against a journalist in Durban by controversial local businessman Ricky Govender who claims close links withJacob Zuma.[31] In Durban in 2009 the editor ofThe Mercury, Philani Makhanya, laid a charge of intimidation against S'bu Mpisani, a politically connected contractor for the housing department in that city who had allegedly threatened the newspaper for its investigations into his activities.[32] InPort Elizabeth the branch chairperson of the rulingAfrican National Congress (ANC), Nceba Faku, called for party supporters to burn down the offices of the local newspaper theDaily Dispatch in 2011.[33] In 2012Piet Rampedi and Adriaan Bassoon, journalists at theCity Press, were subject to various threats and forms of intimidation while covering a story on corruption byJulius Malema.[34] Also in 2012 ANC supporters publicly burnt copies of theCity Press newspaper in Durban.[35]
There have been a number of independently documented cases where the constitutionally protected right to protest has not been honoured by the state.[9][37][38][39][40] One particularly well documented instance occurred inDurban in 2006[41] and another in Cape Town in 2012.[42][43] It has also been claimed that the right to protest has been summarily denied to shack dwellers on the East Rand.[44] It has been argued that not just ANC controlled municipalities, but also oppositionDemocratic Alliance (DA) ones, engage in unlawful bans on the right to protest.[45] It has also been suggested that recent judicial interventions amount to ade facto curtailment of the right to protest.[46] It has been argued that there was an increase in the unlawful banning of protests after the 2012Marikana massacre[47] and that this has taken the form of ade facto "state of emergency".[48]
The police, which were demilitarised after apartheid have been remilitarised[49][50] and some politicians have encouraged the police to 'shoot to kill'.[51] In the view of some analysts this has contributed to escalating repression.[50][52] Concern has also been expressed at use of tactical response teams to contain popular protest[53] and at the idea that the army should support the police in containing popular protest.[54]
In 2010 journalists Mzilikazi waAfrika was arrested at the offices of theSunday Times. Charges against him were later dropped.[55] waAfrika's phone was also unlawfully tapped by the police.[56] In July 2012 Nic Dawes, Sam Sole and Stefaans Brummer, journalists at theMail & Guardian, were questioned by the police following the publication of a story alleging corruption by senior ANC leaderMac Maharaj.[57]
There have been numerous incidents of repression against grassrootssocial movements[58] and activists have alleged arrests on trumped up charges[2] and assaults at the hands of the police.[59] For instance it was reported that Ashraf Cassiem from theWestern Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign was assaulted by the police in 2000 while resisting an eviction[60] and thatS'bu Zikode andPhilani Zungu fromAbahlali baseMjondolo were arrested and assaulted while on the way to a radio interview in 2006.[61] In September 2010 four residents of Hangberg, inHout Bay, nearCape Town were shot in the face at close range by police with rubber bullets leading to the loss of their eyes.[62] In February 2011 two protesters were killed by the police and a number subject to torture in Ermelo.[53] In January 2012 it was reported thatAyanda Kota was assaulted in theGrahamstown police station.[63][64] In August and September 2012 strikers and community activists in Marikana were subject to sustained police harassment, including a large number of fatalities.[65] In October 2012 activists in Makause, on the East Rand, reported death threats from the police.[66] In December 2012 it was reported that in Wesselton, Mpumalanga, police were engaged in sustained collective harassment, some of it violent, of a local community.[67]
There has been general concern about police torture in South Africa,[27][28][68] which has been described as "occurring en masse" and "spiralling out of control".[69] In 1996 Kevin Kunene, founding chairman of the KwaMbonambi Environmental Group, was tortured by the police.[70] Organisations such as theLandless People's Movement[71] have documented cases in which activists and protesters have been tortured.[72][73] There were media reports of police torture of activists in Wessleton,Ermelo, in 2011[53][74][75] and inMarikana in 2012.[76][77][78]
People Killed by the Police During Protests
The worst instance of lethal police violence in response to protest since the end of theapartheid era in South Africa is the shootings of 34 striking miners at Marikanan nearRustenburg, which have come to be known as 'The Marikana Massacre', during theMarikana miner strike on 16 August 2012.[5][79][80][81]
The ICD has reported a rise in police violence against protesters since 2010[82] and a number of unarmed protesters have been killed by theSouth African Police Service since 2000.[83] Four people were killed by the police during protests between 2000 and 2004, two in 2006, one in 2008, two in 2009, three in 2010 and eleven in 2011.[84] In 2016,Human Rights Watch documented at least 27 police killings of protesters and bystanders at 62 different protest locations around the country.[85]
Unnamed person (27), Mahikeng, North West, 4 July 2012[107]
Paulina Masuhlo, Marikana, North West, 19 September 2012[108]
Michael Daniels (28), Wolsely, Western Cape, 14 November 2012[109][110]
Service Nkadimeng (33), Primrose,Germiston, Gauteng, 18 November 2012[111]
Letsekang Tokhwane (25), De Doorns, 14 January 2013[112] (Note: Some media reports indicate that a third, unnamed protestor was also killed in theWestern Cape Farm Workers' Strike[113])
Six unnamed people,Sasolburg, Free State, 22 January 2013[114] (Note: One report indicates that one, also unnamed man, was reported to have been shot dead by a passing motorist)[115]
Nkosiyethu Wele Mgoq (15), Sterksrpuit,Eastern Cape, 15 February 2013[116]
Organisations such as theLandless People's Movement,[157]Abahlali baseMjondolo[158][159][160] and theUnemployed People's Movement[161][162] have been subject to armed political violence by groups claiming to represent the ruling ANC. The Makause Community Development Forum have also claimed to have been subject to state sanctioned violence by an ANC aligned 'mob'.[66] There have also been cases where ANC supporters have disrupted protests organised by independent groups. One example of this was the attempt to disrupt a protest by the Moretele Concerned Communities Association in May 2012.[163] It has been argued that the violence associated with theMarikana miners' strike in August 2012 began after officials of theNational Union of Mineworkers murdered two strikers.[164]
Grassroots activists have been reporting fears that they may be killed since at least 2002.[165] There have been reports of death threats against activists in Ermelo (2011),[166] inGrahamstown (2011),[167] in eTwatwa on theEast Rand (2010),[168] and in Durban (2006, 2009, 2012).[159][160][169][170][171][172]
Unsolved murders of activists claimed to be political assassinations
In May 2016 two ANC councillors were convicted of murder following the assassination ofThuli Ndlovu, a local leader inAbahlali baseMjondolo, an autonomous shack dwellers' movement inDurban.[207][208]
In July 2012 Alpheus Moseri (68) collapsed and died following an assault by MK Veterans at a lecture given by Jacob Zuma.[209][210] In October 2012 COSATU President Sidumo Dlamini called for MK veterans to use "their guerrilla military skills to work with us on the ground to defend this movement and our revolution as a whole"[211] In November 2012 it was reported that MK veterans had made threats against Deputy PresidentKgalema Motlanthe.[212] In November 2012 it was reported that armed men claiming to be MK veterans stormed into an ANC branch meeting on the East Rand and threatened to shoot members of the branch if they did not nominate Zuma for re-election.[213]
According toBarney Pityana "we are beginning to see the emergence of party (or presidential) militia in the guise of the Umkhonto weSizwe Veterans, who are the new Gestapo with a fascist agenda."[214]
In Durban in 2013 the shack dwellers' movementAbahlali baseMjondolo secured five High Court injunctions against evictions which were "systemically ignored by state actors who have repeatedly torn down the shacks of local residents".[215]
Ruling party attitudes to independent organisations
According toZwelinzima Vavi,COSATU Secretary General, "The [ruling] party unfortunately has adopted in our view an unnecessarily hostile posture to some progressive civil organisations and coalitions, painted a number of organisations with the same brush and has tended to take the view that they are the product of external agendas."[216]
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