Official act against civil dissent
‘Trumped up’ charges mean 94 health-care workers will be back in docks
WHILE Free State premier Ace Magashule was delivering a buoyant State of the Province address in Mangaung in February, more than 100 community health-care workers (CHW) were at home, dismissed from their jobs and waiting to go on trial under a predemocratic law.
Those workers, 94 of whom were in the dock at the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court this week, had spent years in relative poverty, earning between R800 and R1 200 a month, and sometimes nothing at all, to look after vulnerable people.
The several thousand now-unemployed had put themselves and their families at high risk, largely unsupported in dealing even with multidrug-resistant TB or dangerous fluids, before they finally took their pain around a growing public health crisis to the streets last year.
There was anger in communities, too. The CHWs were often the people who had cared, visited people at home to administer ARVs and other critical medication and got patients to treatment in time.
So, with the assistance of NGO Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), the workers began to organise themselves to get their jobs back. They started with a series of protests over a number of weeks, targeting the health department’s headquarters at Bophelo House in the capital.
Some demonstrations came after notifying the authorities, others were spontaneous. But after a brief occupation of the government building in late June, it seemed there’d been a breakthrough: a promise was made by controversial health MEC Benny Malakoane that he would meet with them within 10 days.
Malakoane has been accused of corruption in his post, even as Free State health faces acute stock-outs of essential medicines and supplies, has insufficient basics such as gloves, water and blankets and is unable to offer adequate services in some embattled health facilities.
The 10 days passed and, almost spontaneously, the HCWs decided to hold a night vigil on July 9 to build solidarity. More than 100 brought their blankets and prayers to take part. They were mostly women in their 40s and 50s, with some TAC activists among them.
Even police records reveal the vigil was peaceful, but at midnight, an order was given to arrest them.
They spent the next 36 hours in the cells, while another group of CHWs gathered again outside Bophelo House the next day to protest the arrests. They too were then held, bringing the tally by the end of July 10 to more than 130 behind bars.
The State then decided to prosecute under the Regulation of Gatherings Act of 1993, legislation drawn up before the constitution protected our rights. So far, it’s spent hundreds of thousands of rand, plus hours of court time, in what feels like an official act against dissent.
On Thursday, the matter was postponed again until the end of September when another five days, and the accompanying taxpayers’ money, have been set aside.
The workers will also have to make arrangements to travel to Bloemfontein, having already done so five fruitless times before the trial finally got going, and the TAC will be affected financially, as it is paying for transport and some other costs.
The central issue is surely the question: did the workers pose any threat to public safety? The defence would say no. It was instead the CHWs’ democratic right to protest. And the charges, they claim, were not about breaking the law, but about defying a government official – in this case, Malakoane – and affecting his reputation.
While the activists were joined by 1 120 delegates attending the Aids conference in Durban last month in calling on Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi and deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa to take a public position that the charges should be dropped, civil society has become increasingly outraged.
The delegates signed a petition around the “trumped-up charges”, and other organisations are stepping up in support.
As the defence’s cross-examination of police Captain Matshidiso Lesimola, a member of the Free State public order unit, played out over four days this week, it became clear that it was not only the CHW who were on trial. So too were freedom of expression, the freedom to protest and police conduct.
The State’s second witness, police officer Goitsimang Sekwena, attracted tweets particularly for stating “you must never trust a crowd even if the mood is good. That’s what we are taught”.
Lesimola, for instance, was a member of the same police public order unit which prevailed when Ficksburg activist Andries Tatane was killed in April 2011 during a service delivery protest. Yet the defence felt magistrate Zukiswa Thafeni was uncomfortable in allowing that evidence, saying there was no relevance and threatening contempt of court.
Mark Heywood of Section27, the NGO which engaged attorneys to act pro bono for the CHWs, argues that Lesimola’s role, just like other police officers, is highly relevant.
“It tells you about the conduct of this unit … their mindset and their lack of understanding about the law. For example, Lesimola de- scribed Bophelo House as a key point and then went on to say that every gover nment building in Bloemfontein is a key point, even though this is not the case.”
Heywood is clear: “There are really two issues here. One is the deeper issue of what is happening in the Free State health department. The other is the incredibly shabby, unlawful treatment by police of the CHWs, which relates to the right to freedom of assembly and protest.
“We have to get to the actual meaning of the Regulation of Gatherings Act in the context of the Constitution. The state has used the words ‘ illegal demonstration’. We say, this ended in 1994.”
By the time the trial continues in September, it could well have galvanised an extraordinary force of political support. Particularly important will be the involvement of the United Front, the coalition of leftist and activist forces which is expected to begin actively campaigning against the status quo within the next few months.
Dinga Sikwebu, education officer of the National Union of Metalworkers (Numsa) and a co-ordinator of the United Front, said the union was first alerted to how the troubles in Free State health were affecting the CHWs through its membership.
“Despite what people may think, a high percentage of our members are dependent on the public health system. Most of the time, people have a view that the metalworker works at Mercedes-Benz, Ford, etc, and that they are on medical aid, but many members work in garages and infor mal employment (with) no other support.
“We also see our role here as being to support an organisation like the TAC, so we were not at all in the forefront. We got involved in what was happening firstly when there was the arrest of the CHWs, who we see as providing an important service in a country which professes a decent health system. Those arrests had to be condemned.
“Our second involvement came when we were horrified by the Free State ANC Youth League marching on the TAC offices after that, and demanding that the offices be closed and the TAC be investigated in terms of the Nonprofit Organisations Act. We thought this was a slippery road around NGOs becoming hamstrung around legislation.”
The interim United Front coordinating body was then briefed by a TAC delegation in March, and a bond was established. The TAC is currently in discussion about affiliation to the United Front, with many of its activists already in those burgeoning ranks.
Meanwhile, the CHWs on trial remain unemployed, troubled by the pressures on them and their communities. Lebuajwang Thobela, an HIV counsellor on trial, vocalises the deep concern.
“This has not only affected me financially, but emotionally as well. I worry about my patients. They now have no one to help them.”
The Free State government and the MEC for Health were asked for their comment two days before publication. Despite calls, mails and SMSes to the relevant parties, the comment was not forthcoming.