DA confirms SAPS used potentially damaging device at anti-Zuma protests
8 June 2017
A reply to a DA Parliamentary question has confirmed that the South African Police Services (SAPS) deployed a Long-Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) during the anti-Zuma protest march in Tshwane in April 2017.
This is incredibly serious as SAPS used potentially dangerous crowd control equipment in defence of the captured President Jacob Zuma.
Police Minister, Fikile Mbalula, must answer key questions on this and the DA will write to him to find out why the LRAD was used, under what circumstances it was used and whether the officers deployed to the protest had been adequately trained on its use.
LRADs are a highly controversial form of crowd control as they let off a high-pitched sound which causes immense amounts of pain, can lead to migraines and may even bring about permanent hearing damage. So much so that in other jurisdictions, the police are currently being sued for using LRADs to control crowds.
When questioned on this by reporters in April, former Acting National Police Commissioner, Khomotso Phahlane, avoided answering initial questions on this issue. Phahlane’s deafening silence was more deafening than the LRAD itself.
The reply also states that the Council for Science and Industry Relations (CSIR) has confirmed that the device ‘is suitable for its intended use’ and that the SAPS had previously deployed LRADs, while 25 public order policing units are currently in possession of them.
However, SAPS does not have the best track record when it comes to crowd control. The lessons of Marikana, where 34 protesting miners were gunned down by the SAPS, show that the SAPS use disproportional force to control crowds in South Africa.
The fact that SAPS are now using equipment that has the potential to seriously harm people, and is subject to large lawsuits in other countries, is cause for serious concern and must be addressed.
The DA will not stand by while the ANC continues to protect their own leaders instead of the citizens that they are meant to.
Issued by Zakhele Mbhele, DA Shadow Minister of Police, 8 June 2017
