The Mpumalanga EFF has condemned in the strongest possible terms the conduct of the police during the peaceful protest against King Mswati III at the Matsamo Border Gate on Tuesday April 19.
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The provincial EFF leader, Collen Sedibe, said his organisation will write to the provincial police commissioner, Lt Gen Semakaleng Manamela, and the Human Rights Commission following the manhandling, abuse of power and shooting of journalists and EFF members during this march.
The EFF was joined by members of the community within Nkomazi and various political parties from the Kingdom of eSwatini to march against the killing of innocent people in eSwatini and the liberation of all political prisoners.
“Just like the Marikana Massacre, where police just opened fire and shot at striking miners, the Mpumalanga police acted out of jurisdiction when, without any provocation and without any warning, they opened fire at EFF members and in the process injured scores of our members, including journalists. “Journalists were shot with rubber bullets, pepper sprayed and manhandled by the police while trying to take pictures. Their cellphones were confiscated by the police, who deleted the footage before giving them back,” said Sedibe.
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During this march, none of the leaders of political parties from the Kingdom of eSwatini were spared from the shooting. “It is because of this background that the Mpumalanga EFF is going to lodge a formal complaint against the members of the SAPS. It is a worrisome fact that in the peak of our democracy there are still government police who use brutal tactics against its citizenry. What makes this incident worse and unacceptable is the fact that it happened just days before we commemorated and celebrated Freedom Day on April 27.
Why should we celebrate Freedom Month when our media is still not free to report as they please, and citizens still cannot come together and protest peacefully and free?” questioned Sedibe. The Mpumalanga SAPS had yet to respond to the paper’s queries by the time of going to press.
