A man reacts as he opens his door to South African soldiers wearing protective masks amid concerns for the Covid-19 coronavirus while they search an apartment block in Johannesburg, on April 2, 2020. Police officers conducted a search during a joint operation between the South African Police Services and the South African National Defence Forces aimed at enforcing the country’s lockdown. (Photo by MARCO LONGARI / AFP)
An NGO has dropped the high court case it launched last week against government over allegations of “violence, excessive force, torture and assault” exacted by police and soldiers during the national lockdown.
Fair and Equitable Society (FES) last week approached the North Gauteng High Court, in Pretoria, seeking an order declaring this conduct “unconstitutional, unlawful and invalid”.
This after videos – which looked to show the security personnel tasked with enforcing the lockdown, forcing non-compliant civilians to do frog jumps and roll on the floor – started surfacing on social media.
In her founding affidavit, FES director Samantha Sarjoo also pointed to clips and reports of police and soldiers “hitting members of the public with fists, samboks (plastic whips) inside their yards; shooting members of the public with rubber bullets; kicking members of the public; [and] killing a man, by shooting him with a service pistol, who was at a tavern buying alcohol”.
FES also wanted the court to interdict the country’s security services from “administering any forms of torture, assault, and punishment to members of the public found violating and / or not complying with any provisions of [the disaster regulations]”.
“The members of the [SAPS and the SANDF] do not have a mandate to publicly humiliate, assault and punish citizens of the republic in the manner that they have,” Sarjoo said, “The conduct of members of the [SAPS and the SANDF] infringes on the rights of the citizens of the country”.
She added that instead of serving and protecting the citizens, like the president had ordered they do, the police and soldiers in question had “instilled fear [and] physical and psychological trauma”.
The president, in his answering affidavit, said that FES had provided “no specififty about the alleged incidents”.
“I deny any specific knowledge that in general members of the [SAPS and SANDF] have acted unconstitutionally in any way whatsoever,” he said. “I am advised that where specific complaints have been raised with the IPID [Independent Police Investigative Directorate] in respect of the conduct of some police, IPID has already undertaken to investigate such complaints. I know of no other incident that has been specifically reported to me or the relevant investigative bodies within the police or the SANDF”.
Ramaphosa said he took the allegations in question seriously.
“I do not take lightly any allegation that there may been incidents of abuse of power by our security personnel. Unfortunately, the affidavit of [FES] simply alleges such abuse without any specificities,” he said. “In the event that such incidents have indeed occurred, they deserve condemnation. They must indeed be reported to the relevant bodies, like IPID, so that proper investigations can be conducted and appropriate action can be taken against the culprits. However, the applicant must assist us with more than just reference to unidentified culprits circulating in various media platforms”.
Sarjoo yesterday confirmed to The Citizen that the application had been withdrawn for the time being, but said she could not comment further at this stage.
For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.
Download our app and read this and other great stories on the move. Available for Android and iOS.
