Police now public enemy number one

THE ANC in the Western Cape condemns in the strongest possible terms the police brutality against residents of Bonteheuwel. Residents took to the streets on Wednesday, in their numbers, galvanising themselves against high levels of criminality in their community and asking for police to help them.

Without any provocation or violence by the community, police started shooting. There were elderly women and men in the crowd, who live in fear daily for their lives and that of their children.

By shooting at the community, police have effectively placed themselves as the enemy of the people ad on the wrong side of the battle against crime. Instead of supporting the community’s call for a stronger and more targeted crime fighting strategy, police are shooting at the very people.

Every day our police are proving to be poorly trained in crowd control. Just seeing crowds makes our police agitated and trigger happy. Police Minister, comrade Bheki Cele must intensify police training on crowd control. The Bonteheuwel crowd did not even have to be controlled. They were well organised and peaceful.

Bonteheuwel has a high rate of unlicensed gun possession, frequent random shootings and a high rate of gang violence with residents afraid to walk around their own communities. The residents protested peacefully. Police did not have to shoot.

Police brutality against the community is unacceptable. We demand the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) investigate. We also ask Minister Cele begin a massive training programme for police on crowd control.