Senekal violence shows police are unable to slow descent into lawlessness

This week’s events in Senekal, where farmers attacked a police station to vent their anger at the gruesome murder of a young farmer, are a further demonstration of the extent to which law and order have deteriorated in SA. Although purportedly in protest against farm attacks and murders, the perpetrators undermined their own cause by themselves engaging in the criminality of public violence and property destruction. In the aftermath of the violence the spotlight fell, predictably, on the role of the police — specifically their perceived failure to protect public property and to act promptly and firmly against the perpetrators.

And, of course, given that race forms the subtext of much that happens in SA, questions were also asked about the police’s impartiality when enforcing the law — specifically, whether they would have shown a similar level of restraint had those breaking the law been black.

Let’s state from the outset that the outcry from the farming community, not just in Senekal but elsewhere in the country, is understandable. In this case the protest was sparked by a particularly horrific attack, where a young white farm manager was found murdered and tied to a pole. Yet, criminal violence in SA affects not just the farming community but the rest of society. It also bears mentioning that the violence was, ironically, sparked by the appearance in court of suspects arrested soon after the crime was committed.

Therefore, by engaging in violence rather than letting the law take its course, those who protested in Senekal this week blurred the line between themselves and the criminals they were protesting about. Irrespective of their grievances, if it becomes the norm for citizens to take the law into their own hands, our society will descend into anarchy and we will all live in a more dangerous and not safer country.

Which takes us to the role of the police in a SA racked by criminality and racial tension. The police’s task is to hold the line against lawlessness and to act against those who break the law, irrespective of their race or cause.

Importantly, not only must the police act impartially, they must also be seen to do so by all sections of society.

The response of police this week may very well give the undesirable impression that if you break the law and you are white, you are likely to be treated more leniently by the authorities than if you were black.

And could it be that when faced with unruly crowds today, the police are paralysed by the spectre of the Marikana massacre, where they were found to be woefully wanting in terms of their crowd-control methods — at the cost of many lives?

It appears that not many lessons were learnt from Marikana, specifically with regard to public-order policing. The violence in Senekal seems to have caught the police unprepared and therefore unable to respond appropriately. Also, could this be yet another case of intelligence failure? For how is it that the police could not anticipate this week’s violence or that large numbers of people would converge on the town?

The inability of police to intervene decisively in quelling the violence and immediately apprehending the culprits will only encourage others to break the law.

But what happened in Senekal is not just about policing — it is about the government’s role in fostering social cohesion and nation building. Part of that process has to be for the government to ensure that the concerns of all South Africans, irrespective of their race or occupation, are taken into account and satisfactorily acted upon.

Equally important, a failure to address the crime problem in the farming sector will have dire consequences for the country as it will put in jeopardy our food security. In the end, the task of bringing crime under control in the farming sector will require a cooperative effort, with the government working in partnership with relevant communities.

It appears that not many lessons were learnt from Marikana