Breakdown of law and order remains a challenge

IT TAKES just over an hour to drive from Ngcobo in the Eastern Cape to the Walter Sisulu University in Umtata.

Sisulu, one of the founding fathers of our democracy, was born in Ngcobo in 1912. His mother, Alice Mase Sisulu, was a domestic worker. His father, Albert Victor Dickinson, was a white man.

Sisulu was brought up by his mom’s family, even taking on their surnames. By all accounts he was a good human being – gentle and loving with all those he came into contact with.

It is ironic that a man with such qualities has to be associated with the type of violence we recently saw at the university in Umtata that carries his name.

Students had been protesting for a few days over a variety of issues, including the waiving of student debt, funding and accommodation. During the protests, a cafeteria was looted and a university bus set alight.

Then, the students decided to take on the police. Members of the Public Order Police Unit (POP) were on foot patrol when protesters threw stones at them.

Two members, who were sitting in an armoured police vehicle, fled when they were attacked. They abandoned the vehicle just before it was set alight.

As the vehicle burnt, students sang: “We don’t have money. We are not working.” In one video circulating online, a student put on a police helmet and danced alongside the burning Nyala.

This was no ordinary vehicle. It is a world-class machine designed for public order operations and is widely used across the globe. It can survive mines, grenades, fire bombs and bullets fired from small guns.

Hours after the incident, National Police Commissioner General Khehla John Sitole commended the manner in which the police handled the protest.

“Members from the POP unit must be commended for practising restraint and enforcing the law within the parameters as set out by the Constitution when they came under attack.”

He asked the head of the police in the Eastern Cape to put in place a plan to bring the perpetrators to book.

The events that played out at the Walter Sisulu University are not unique. We see them all too often in various parts of our country.

Our police force is simply not up to the task of protecting anyone, let alone themselves. What’s more, they are inadequate at ensuring there are consequences for those who break the law.

The breakdown of law and order is one of the greatest challenges facing our young democracy. Twenty-seven years later, this level of criminality is not in keeping with the type of society our founding fathers envisioned.