BY NORM DIXON
JOHANNESBURG — The South African government has repeatedly resorted to police repression to stifle protests by critics of the African National Congress' anti-poor, anti-worker, pro-corporate policies during the August 26-September 3 World Summit for Sustainable Development.
Foreign delegates who came to South Africa with romantic notions that post-apartheid South Africa had been "liberated" were rudely shocked.
The ANC government's repression has made it clear that it will not tolerate people "embarrassing the government" while the eyes of the world are focussed on the country. Leaders of the protest movement liken the situation in Johannesburg to an "undeclared state of emergency".
The repression and harassment began before the Earth Summit's official gala opening. Seventy-two landless people and land activists were arrested on August 21. Police attacked with batons and tear gas. Seven people were injured, including a pregnant women who had a miscarriage while in custody.
Those arrested included most of the Gauteng leadership of the Landless People's Movement (LPM), a national movement of poor and landless people struggling for land reform. Police also arrested National Land Committee director Zakes Haltshwayo and NLC land rights coordinator Andile Mngxitama. The NLC is a network of land rights organisations working with poor and landless communities across South Africa. Members of the Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF) also participated.
The arrests followed a peaceful march and demonstration by about 1000 landless people from informal settlements around Johannesburg, who are facing apartheid-style forced removals, in particular in Thembalihle and Protea South in Soweto. The marchers wanted Gauteng provincial premier Mbhazima (Sam) Shilowa — a leading member of the South African Communist Party (SACP) — to sign a commitment to stop forced removals and to end the brutal campaign of terror being waged against the province's poor and landless people by the notorious "red ants" security guards and the police.
The NLC and LPM vowed that the attack would not disrupt plans to host a "Week of the Landless" and a Landless People's Assembly during the summit, or its planned "March of the Landless" from Alexandra to Sandton — the salubrious, overwhelmingly white populated city which is the site of the summit — on August 31. Alexandra is home to 350,000, mostly poor, residents. At least 60% of Alexandra's adult population is unemployed.
On August 24, a peaceful "Freedom of Expression" march, organised by Social Movements Indaba and the International Forum on Globalisation, was attacked by police as it left the campus of the University of Witwatersrand. The SMI brings together the APF, Jubilee SA, the Environmental Justice Networking Forum, the Rural Development Services Network, Friends of the Earth and the Palestinian Solidarity Committee.
Armed only with candles, the 500 marchers were marching off to the Johannesburg Central Prison to show solidarity with the landless people arrested on August 21 and 98 members of the Soldiers' Forum and APF arrested at a protest on August 17. Without warning, police attacked them with concussion grenades. Tear gas was also used.
In the ensuing melee, a Canadian activist, Karen Coge, was hit by one of the grenades and had to be rushed to hospital, suffering from serious burns. APF member Dudu Mphenyeke was also taken to hospital with a dislocated knee and at least one other marcher was injured.
Prominent South African filmmaker Rehad Desai, who was filming the march, was arrested for "obstructing police operations" and hauled off to Hillbrow Police Station. Several internationally renowned anti-globalisation activists and intellectuals, including Vandana Shiva, Naomi Klein, Patrick Bond and John Saul, were caught in the police attack.
Marchers regrouped in the street while a small army of heavily armed and aggressive police faced them. March leaders attempted to reason with the police to allow the march to proceed. Police commanders indicated that they were prepared to forcibly arrest everyone. After an hour of alternating toyi-toying and sit-downs in front of the police lines, the crowd peacefully dispersed.
On August 25, South Africa's foreign minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma told a news briefing that the march was "unauthorised". "We expect them to feel free to say and do what they like — within the law... This summit is not a summit for anarchy", she said.
Zuma blatantly lied when she told the 1000 journalists present that police were forced to fire concussion grenades into the crowd when a small group of protesters "broke away".
Indymedia footage shows clearly that marchers did not provoke the actions of the police. When marchers reached the gates of the Wits university, police attempted to block them. The crowd moved around the police and entered Jorrisen Street at which point the police fired concussion grenades into the middle of the crowd. It was clear from their actions that they were under orders to prevent the march from crossing their line.
The ANC also issued a statement that accused anti-Earth Summit activists of engaging in "mindless violence" and being hell-bent on the "irresponsible pursuit of confrontation and anarchy".
Police intimidation continues. On August 27, the APF office in Johannesburg was visited by the head of the National Intelligence Agency, while the LPM's Landless People's Assembly, which also began that day, has been staked out by 19 police "hippos" (the notorious apartheid-era "township tanks"). The NLC's Andile Mngxitama said that the movement's leaders are being followed by the intelligence services.
Police have also threatened to deport Ann Eveleth, a US citizen who has lived and worked in South Africa since 1993. Eveleth is NLC's media spokesperson and is being held at the Kempton Park police station. She was arrested for breaching the Aliens Control Act when she went to arrange bail for the arrested LPM marchers.
[Compiled from reports posted at .]
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, September 4, 2002.
Visit the