‘Brutal’ pandemic policing leaves Saffers with little faith in cops
The Covid-19 pandemic has created a space for police officers to “flex their muscles” and turn their focus on to “soft targets”.
This is what University of KwaZulu-Natal professor Sadhana Manik told delegates attending a virtual conference which examined policing during SA’s lockdown.
The webinar, titled “Policing through Violence in SA’s lockdown: Citizen rights versus police responsibilities”, looked at the role of the police during lockdown and perceptions about its members’ behaviour and practices during and post Covid-19.
Manik said the idea of policing through violence or the concept of police brutality “is not a sudden feature precipitated by lockdown in SA”.
She referred to statistics from police watchdog, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate
(Ipid).
“More than 42,000 complaints made about the police between 2012 and 2019 including rape, killings and torture. That is an average of 5,250 complaints annually – and we know that, at best, these are extremely conservative figures because victims have a tendency not to report a crime perpetrated by police.
“The pandemic has led to the president declaring that SA is in a state of disaster and as such the police, who are designated law enforcement officers, during a state of disaster are supposed to be ‘peace officers’.
“SAPS can investigate and prosecute for a criminal offence. Whilst undertaking such duties they are obliged to use least possible force where necessary.”
But, according to Manik, social media was replete with cases of civilians being assaulted by the police for non-compliance with lockdown measures.
“In fact, the lockdown has created further opportunities for police violence to manifest itself in communities.” She made reference to Alexandra township resident Collins Khosa, who died in April following an alleged altercation with soldiers.
“The pandemic created a space for the police to flex their muscles, targeting what researchers are pointing to as ‘soft targets’, namely poor black South Africans and immigrants.
“Immigrant shop owners in SA have been experiencing the looting of their shops, violence, victimisation, extortion and torture, and all of this had happened pre-Covid-19 and it has continued during the pandemic,” she said.
Immigrant businessmen were fearful to report crimes. “The aura of police corruption and brutality is again evident in these cases during the pandemic. The immigrant business owners have expressed fear and are reluctant to report the crimes, although they have revealed the photographs and video footage as evidence to several news reporters.”