ANC CALLS FOR INQUIRY INTO POLICE BRUTALITY IN FICKSBURG

In what the African National Congress (ANC) can only describe as resembling apartheid era police strong arm tactics, showing total disregard for human rights enshrined in the South African Constitution, members of the South African Police Service (SAPS) today (13 April 2011) violently killed an unarmed protester after severely beating him in full glare of members of the Ficksburg community in the Free State.

The ANC strongly condemns the brutal beating of the man to death - a chilling and sad scene which was later shown to millions on national television news by the SA Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).

While we send condolences to the family of the deceased, we call on Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa to institute an immediate commission of inquiry into the death in Fickburg and bring the perpetrators to book.

We are a constitutional democracy, with our people enjoying all rights to stage peaceful demonstrations to back their concerns - a far cry from being a police state. It was totally unbelievable, shocking and disgusting to see images on our television screens of such extreme police brutality and murderous activity.

We hope that the minister will act with speed to bring the police perpetrators to book. No amount of wrong doing by the protesters necessitated such brutality and killing on the part of our law enforcement officers.

We are equally concerned that the public broadcaster showed such shocking and disturbing images on its prime time news slot with disregard to young viewers and other sensitive people who obviously would have been disturbed to various degrees by such images. We therefore, also call upon the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) to investigate whether the public broadcaster has not overstepped its mandate in this regard.

Statement issued by Jackson Mthembu, ANC national spokesperson, April 13 2011

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