Time bomb of protests

Mariadza Inclusive School’s administration block was set alight by protesters in Mashau village, Limpopo. Picture: SANDILE NDLOVU

Police admit they can’t cope with rise in violent demonstrations

SOUTH Africa is sitting on a ticking time bomb of violent protests, with the police admitting that they do not have enough manpower to cope. With local government elections approaching, the outlook is ominous, according to a leading criminologist.

Public order policing has come under the spotlight since the killing of 34 miners at Marikana in 2012.

Municipal IQ this month told Times Media that protests were becoming more frequent and more often violent, with 86% of protests on its Hotspots Monitor being violent.

Police management admitted in parliament yesterday that police did not have enough public order members to deal with the challenges posed by protests. In 2014, police requested an additional R3.3-billion to increase public order policing numbers and equipment, which the Treasury denied.

It was announced that R598-million would be spent on public order policing over the next three years.

Addressing parliament’s police portfolio committee, deputy national police commissioner Fannie Masemola said 11 unrest hotspots had recently been identified. They include: ý Grabouw – where residents protested against evictions and set fire to a traffic department building;

• Hammanskraal – where two people were killed and six critically injured in an eviction protest on Monday;
• Vaal University of Technology – where students protested over the suspension and arrest of other protesting students;
• Fort Hare University – where students set buildings alight in protests over meal, housing and travel allowances; and
• Vuwani in Limpopo – where residents destroyed 21 schools in protests over the new demarcation of their area.

Another school was torched this week as the protests continued.

Masemola said more than 600 public order police members had been deployed to the hotspots.

Some of the violence has been identified as being driven by political reasons, which will see police deployed in these areas until after the elections.

Masemola said their resources were stretched.

“I am in negotiations to up the number of people trained in public order policing. What we have is not sufficient to cater for the challenges we have,” he said.

Institute for Security Studies policing researcher Johan Burger said the solution was not in the hands of the police.

“Yes, the public order policing units have a responsibility to deal with public violence, but the problem is far greater,” he said.

Burger said police statistics showed violence in protests had spiked by 274% in the past decade.

In the last year, 30 protests were recorded daily, five of which were violent, he said.

Burger said decisions taken by former national police commissioner Jackie Selebi in 2006 were compounding the public order policing capability problems.

Selebi had reduced the number of public order police members from 7 500 to 2 500, he said.

“The numbers have been increased to 4 700 but are far from what is needed, especially if you look at the number of violent protests.

“In 2014, the police announced that by 2018 the numbers will be increased to 9 000 members, but this process hasn’t started properly.”

Burger said another major problem was that the incidents were driven by conditions and factors beyond the police’s control.

He said many of those who demonstrated over poor service delivery had genuine reasons for demonstrating.

“Government departments are not performing because of incompetent appointments, which leads to poor service delivery.

“People become violent because they believe it’s the only way to attract attention to their concerns.

“It’s a vicious circle where police are forced, because of the violence, to use retaliatory force.”

Yesterday, parliament heard of the police’s progress in implementing the Farlam Commission’s findings.

The committee was told a panel of experts was looking at equipment requirements and the training of all police officers in the public order environment.