SAPS battles to control EFF marchers

THE SAPS’s crowd control measures came under the spotlight when police officers battled to control thousands of feisty EFF supporters at the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg yesterday.

This was after the EFF supporters breached the policebarricaded area reserved for political parties, including the DA and Cope, and marched close to the steps of the Concourt building, where the Nkandla matter was being heard.

The police tried to move the crowd back, to no avail, prompting them to use their Casspir armoured vehicle to cordon off the throughway with a razor wire.

EFF president Julius Malema was scathing of the SAPS’s conduct in controlling the party’s supporters, saying he had briefed the police officers early yesterday about such measures. He said his suggestions were not followed.

Nkandla

“You (police) messed up the whole plan. You don’t know how to control a crowd. Public order policing is about effective crowd control. Now they come and say, ‘Chief, chief, please talk to them (supporters)’,” Malema said, urging the women and men in blue not to provoke them.

“We are here to deal with the man who is stealing your money, so maximum co-operation will make us have a peaceful gathering,” he said, referring to the millions of rands spent on non-security upgrades at President Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla home.

Contacted for comment, police spokeswoman Brigadier Mashadi Selepe said: “I won’t confirm or challenge what Malema said. All I can say is that we’re incident-free.

There were no casualties and we applaud them for their behaviour.”

Earlier, as Malema led the EFF members in a march to the Concourt from the Johannesburg city centre, there was panic in the streets as business people saw a sea of red approaching.

Some of the EFF members broke off from the main group and ran around, brandishing sticks. Frightened bystanders ran away.

Malema had earlier, while addressing EFF supporters at Mary Fitzgerald Square in Newtown, dismissed Zuma’s offer to pay back the nonsecurity upgrades costs at his Nkandla home as a “Mickey Mouse deal”. He questioned why Zuma had, after telling the nation that he used a bond to build his Nkandla home, made his about-turn.

“All we wanted was to get the head of executive, the president, to be accountable... He gave us some Mickey Mouse deal which we have rejected.

“We said to him, we are not accepting your deal. We are saying to the Constitutional Court, please do the right thing; this matter in the interest of the nation,” Malema said. “People have… talked about it for far too long now and it has to come to an end.”

He reiterated his threat that Zuma would not have it easy during the State of the Nation address.

“You must see what is going happen on Thursday, watch the TV. The sugar levels are going to very high,” Malema said, to a raucous laughter. THE rape case against 10 young men charged with the assault of a 15-year-old schoolgirl, hinges on the content of two cellphone videos of the incidents.

This was heard in the Durban Magistrate’s Court yesterday, when five of the men applied for bail. The remaining five are all minors and have already been released into the custody of their parents.

In terms of the law, even if the State finds that there was consent by the girl, the five men who are over the age of 18 could still be prosecuted for statutory rape.

Both the victim and the accused attended the same school, south of Durban, and one incident took place on the school premises and the other outside of school.

The incidents, which took place last month, came to light last week when teachers became aware of an eight-second video of one of the incidents.

Yesterday, the men’s families were present in court and told journalists that they were upset about media coverage of the matter.

Bail

Investigating officer Constable Prenolan Naidoo testified that the police had retrieved the cellphone on which two videos were recorded.

He said while police had viewed the eight-second video, the other had been deleted and had been sent to the police’s cyber crimes unit to be recovered.

Naidoo conceded that the girl had only reported that she had been raped after she was questioned by her teachers, a week after the second incident.

He said he was not opposed to bail because the victim had been moved to another school and had been advised to leave the area.

He also said that the community was not opposed to the men going back to school and being released on bail.

Attorney Ridewaan Sayed, who is representing one of the accused, asked Naidoo whether the eight-second video supported the victim’s allegations.

Sayed said there were exceptional circumstances that warranted his client’s release on bail, including the strength of the State’s case and that the State was not opposed to bail.

Legal aid attorney Welile Ndlovu, who is representing the four others, said her clients would plead not guilty, and had been threatened by the teachers before their arrests.

One said a teacher had called him a “rapist” and assaulted him.

They said they had been bullied by other prisoners and feared for their safety if they were kept in Westville Prison.

The case was adjourned to tomorrow for a decision on bail to be made.