Police ordered to pay strike damages

WHEN a crime is imminent and foreseen, it is expected of the police to take action, and they are duty bound to maintain law and order including when they are called to attend to a strike.

This is according to a judge who ordered the police to pay damages to the owners of a banana farm in Mpumalanga, and to a farmworker stabbed with a broken bottle by a protester.

The amount payable will be determined at a later stage.

The North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria ruled that some of the police officers in Hazyview called to control striking workers at a farm in Umbhaba had simply displayed a “don’t-care attitude” in the midst of the violence which saw a worker injured, non-striking people being intimidated, and farm buildings and equipment being trashed.

The attitude of the SAPS was that they either did not know about the strike, or that things were not bad when they did respond to calls from the farm.

Acting Judge J Mtati said the community expects the police to act when they are called out. He said the SAPS’s failure to do so resulted in negligent and wrongful conduct.

The problems started when new owners took over the Kiepersol farm, one of three in the Umbhaba group. The business mainly grows bananas and instituted a new rule that workers had to work on Saturdays.

Unhappy with this, about 300 workers went on strike. The owners got wind of the strike a few days before it happened, and informed the local police.

Farm manager Dean Plath and a director of Umbhaba testified that on the first day of the strike a group of disgruntled workers blocked the entrance to the farm and hurled stones at the main building where workers were supposed to pack bananas. They also wielded sticks and intimidated non-striking workers.

After he had phoned the police station numerous times, two junior officers came to the farm and told them to work it out with the union officials.

Plath said although some of the strikers were violent and almost hit him with a brick, the police did nothing and eventually left.

Things became more violent on the second day, and video footage taken by farm management showed how one of the security guards was hit with a stone in the face.

Plath phoned the police several times and even spoke to the station commander before a few SAPS members arrived.

The court was told that the police once again did not do anything.

The farm management then turned to the court for an interdict against the protesters, and the SAPS was ordered to take action if the strike continued.

The court was told that the strike continued and the police, after being called time and again to come and assist, still did little.

Management again turned to court, where the SAPS were warned that they would be in contempt of court if they did not act.

Still very little law enforcement happened.

This was in spite of the fact that a petrol bomb was hurled at the main building of the farm and a farmworker was attacked with a bottle. The woman testified that the SAPS saw this, yet they did not come to her rescue.

Asked why they did not act, the few officers who did testify said that the violence was not “so bad”. Others said they were not told about the strike.

Judge Mtati said this was simply astonishing, as the farm management had phoned the charge office repeatedly to ask for help and even spoken to the station commander about what was happening.

The judge said even if the SAPS only patrolled the area from time to time, it would have made a difference as the strikers would have been wary because of their presence.