People terrified to visit Home Affairs

If we look around at what is happening in other countries in our vicinity, we can be proud we can vote without fear

PEOPLE are afraid to go to Home Affairs in Pinetown because of criminal elements lurking outside it, owing to the “lack of security”.

The Mercury was inundated with letters, published in yesterday’s newspaper, in the wake of a report of businessman Visvin Reddy’s stabbing outside the premises on Monday.

Reddy was looking for parking across the road from the offices when he was attacked in his car. He was stabbed twice and needed stitches.

But the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Home Affairs distanced itself from the situation yesterday, asserting that crime’s occurrence in the vicinity of Home Affairs did not make it the department’s problem.

Readers complained of muggings and hijacking attempts from criminal gangs, which they said preyed on visitors to Home Affairs.

“Not a day goes by when someone is not accosted, mugged or stabbed and children are left traumatised outside Pinetown Home Affairs”, wrote a reader, who said attacks were regularly reported on a community Facebook group.

Soft targets

“It would appear that one or two gangs of young men are deeming visitors to Home Affairs soft targets.

“These incidents are reported to the SAPS, but nothing … is being done.”

The SAPS called that claim “baseless” yesterday, saying Pinetown had “visible policing and tactical response members” deployed on a 24-hour basis.

Readers also bemoaned the lack of on-premises parking, which left the disabled and elderly vulnerable when they parked far away.

The manager of Home Affairs in KZN, Cyril Mncwabe, said security inside the premises was “adequate”, and that crimes outside Home Affairs were not the department’s responsibility.

“If you are going to hospital and you get mugged outside, is it the hospital’s problem? We have our own security inside. If it’s not inside, how does it become a Home Affairs issue?”

Readers also alleged that the office manager at Pinetown Home Affairs had been “attacked three times”. Mncwabe denied knowledge of that.

Regarding the parking issue, Mncwabe said there was paid parking on the roof of the building, but he conceded that it might not be sufficient.

The provincial SAPS could not give the number of complaints received as statistics had not been released yet.

WHAT our local government elections proved last week was that democracy in South Africa is stronger than ever, and it is something South Africans should be very proud of. If we look around the southern African region, the tenets of democracy are not as strong as in South Africa, and in some instances elections are being accompanied by significant violence and abuse of state institutions and resources.

In South Africa, when the state broadcaster was perceived to have clamped down on media freedom, a relentless civil society campaign was launched to reverse this trend.

The strength of a democracy can often be judged by the freedom of its Fourth Estate. In our country, freedom of the press is protected in the constitution and generally respected in practice, but increasingly this has not been the case in a number of other SADC countries. The most recent example is Zambia, which held its elections yesterday amid fears of violence.

The election period saw the ruling party clamp down on media freedom, with Zambia’s public broadcaster refusing to air the main opposition party’s political campaign documentary.

In June the government shut down the country’s only independent newspaper, The Post, leaving the state media with a monopoly on election coverage. Ever since the official shutdown, personnel of The Post have been in hiding, with deputy editor Joseph Mwenda working in one location, while its journalists work in another. The paper is now being designed in one part of town, and printed in another, with only Mwenda having knowledge of the whole operation.

As a result of the government’s clampdown on radio stations and other media in the election period, opposition parties had to do prolific campaigning across the country.

The main opposition party faced difficulties with rally permits denied, posters and billboards turned down, and its vice-presidential candidate frequently arrested and his home tear-gassed. Opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema also claimed that an opposition supporter had been beaten to death by ruling party activists.

The violence became so serious that the electoral body suspended campaigning for 10 days in Lusaka and Namwala. The electoral body had warned that voters would be afraid to turn up to vote in large numbers if the violence continued. What made matters worse was President Edgar Lungu said he was willing to take draconian measures, including suspending some democratic rights, to restore order.

While it was forecast that there would be more female than male voters at the Zambian polls, only 10% of the electoral candidates were women, highlighting the patriarchal nature of Zambian society.

Compare this to South Africa, where 60% of the governing ANC and opposition EFF proportional representation candidates were female, while the DA fielded one-third women. This is an accomplishment in terms of gender equality that is not acknowledged enough. If we look beyond Zambia, media freedom has been struck significant blows in other neighbouring countries such as Lesotho and Angola. In July, the editor of the Lesotho Times and Sunday Express was shot in an assassination attempt, and the publisher and chief executive of the newspaper group, Basildon Peta, was charged with crimen injuria.

The Lesotho government has been openly hostile to the Lesotho Times, and Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili has accused newspapers of being too critical of the government. Recently a spokesperson of one of the parties in the coalition government went on air and called for Peta to be killed.

The suppression of media freedom in Angola has an even longer

Media freedom has been struck significant blows in neighbouring countries

genesis, and the last remaining independent newspaper was closed down in 2014. In 2010 a state security law was enacted, allowing for detention of those who insulted the republic or the president in public meetings or in print, leading to lengthy imprisonment. In 2015 the scope of the criminal code in this regard was even further broadened.

Rafael Marques de Morais, the Angolan journalist and human rights activist who has received several international awards for his reporting on conflict diamonds and government corruption, was charged with defamation in 1999 and fought a lengthy court battle. Last year he was the recipient of the Allard prize for International Integrity, and commented that the award was a boost for his work, and an important break in his isolation and regular harassment by the state.

If South Africans look around at what is transpiring in other countries, even in their immediate vicinity, they can be proud that 22 years after the advent of democracy, South Africans can vote without fear of violence or repression, that opposition parties enjoy an even playing field, women are widely represented, and we still have a vibrant, dynamic and free media.

Ebrahim is the group foreign editor of Independent Media.