Our law and order enforcers need more law and order

It seems our police service (maybe it should revert to being called a force, because that seems to be its watchword) has learned little from the Marikana tragedy.

When it comes to crowd control, police personnel are hopelessly out of their depth and reacting with a brutality which is more reminiscent of apartheid than compatible with a democratic society.

On Wednesday, in Eersterust outside Pretoria, police responded with uncalled-for force against the community, which was protesting a lack of housing and poor service delivery.

The area was wreathed in acrid black smoke from burning tyres and roads were barricaded … so we will not argue with the police that they were dealing with an unrest situation. However, it is apparent that the decision was taken to punish every person in Eersterust, regardless of whether they were involved in the rioting or not.

Hence, as they drove down the streets, they opened fire with rubber bullets and tear gas on anyone they could see – even those who were merely being spectators behind the fences of their plots.

One of our photographers was shot in the back in the melee and our reporter badly injured her leg trying to flee from the cops. However, that is not why we are voicing our concern – although we now know the sting of police brutality ourselves.

The police in Eersterust were firing directly at people with rubber bullets, which is either a deliberate violation of procedure – which used to be that such ammunition should be used to ricochet off the ground first, to reduce the possibility of injury – or lack of training.

This lack of discipline, or awareness, on the part of the police is the reason why 36 miners were gunned down at Marikana.

We need law and order in our law and order enforcers.

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