Remarks by Minister of Police, Nathi Mthethwa MP around the Mothutlung service delivery protest in Pretoria

24 Jan 2014

The National Commissioner of Police, General Phiyega;
All Senior SAPS Management present;
Members of the Media;

We convened this media briefing to provide an update around the incidents relating to the service delivery protest and the subsequent police action in the Madibeng Municipality, the past two weeks. We deemed it appropriate to utilise this occasion to reiterate our policing philosophy, which is a community-centred philosophy.

Members of SAPS are governed by legislation and in particular the Public Order Policing members, are well-trained. In fact we have bench-marked our training with some of the leading departments around the world and we compare favourably.

We have in the last few years, witnessed an increase in public protests and more worryingly some of them have been violent in nature, whereas others are peaceful.

During the last financial year, about 13 000 crowd-related incidents were responded to and successfully stabilised. Of this figure, only 1 882 were violent incidents. The Dangerous Weapons Act of 2013 (Act No.15 of 2013), a new piece of legislation that has been promulgated to address the possession of weapons during public gatherings and mass demonstrations, officially came into effect on the 2nd of January 2014.

In terms of the new act it is a criminal offence to possess a dangerous weapon with the intention of committing an unlawful act. If the possession of a dangerous weapon raises a reasonable suspicion that the person intends to use the dangerous weapon to commit an unlawful act, the person may be found guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine or to be imprisoned for a period not exceeding three years.

As of the 2nd of January 2014 it is a criminal offence for a person to possess during a gathering or demonstration, any dangerous weapon, any airgun, firearm, imitation firearm and that is likely to be mistaken for a firearm, any harmful and sharp object or any other object capable of causing death or inflicting serious bodily harm, if it were to be used for an unlawful purpose.

Furthermore, the Gatherings Act of 1993, provides clear guidelines on how to manage the organisation of public protests, gatherings and marches. Let me now deal with the Mothotlung public protest incident, which regrettably, resulted in the loss of lives.

The public protest stemmed from the communities dissatisfaction relating to the lack of water supply in the Madibeng Municipality. The community expressed dissatisfaction amongst others, of the lack of water supply and the awarding of tenders to the relatives of the Municipality employees, to supply water in the area, using water tankers.

Investigations by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate

The violent protests resulted in the death of four people, allegedly shot by police and the matter was immediately investigated by those who police the police, that is the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID).

A case of four counts of murder and four of attempted murder was registered vide Cas 221/01/2014 and is being investigated by the Independent Complaints Investigating Directorate.

Disciplinary investigation by the SAPS

Following this incident, I then tasked the SAPS management to institute an internal investigation, which is independent and parallel from the current IPID investigation.

The Provincial Commissioner of the North West Province, Lieutenant General Mbombo appointed Brigadier Z M Mkhwanazi, the Section Head Public Order Policing as the Disciplinary Investigating Officer to conduct an Inquiry into both incidents in terms Regulation 12 (1) of the SAPS disciplinary Regulations, 2006 on 2014/01/15.

The Investigation commenced on 16 January 2014 and a preliminary report was received on Wednesday this week (22 January 2014). The number of officers implicated in the Mothutlung incidents was fourteen (14).

Key findings of the investigation:

• The members did not comply with some of the core internal operational prescripts in so far as they relate to public order policing
• The provisions of the Regulations of Gatherings Act 205 of 1993 were inconsistently applied by all parties, particularly as far as sections 3 and 4 regarding the giving of notice and the holding of triangular meetings respectively are concerned.
• Dispersal furthermore did not take place according to the provisions of section 9 of the Act and the force used to disperse the crowd was disproportional.

Disciplinary actions

Having considered the finding of the investigation that was commissioned, disciplinary actions is being instituted against the 14 affected members. Six are already suspended others are being served with their suspension notices. We envisage completing this disciplinary process within the prescribed sixty (60) days.

Conclusion

As I conclude, let me reiterate the message we echoed two days ago: there is no prevalent culture of impunity within the police service. We are a caring government and therefore there is no carte blanche that we give to our officers to kill innocent people who protest.

As a nation, collectively as organisers and police, we need to work together to prevent the repeat of such events. It is our responsibility both as individuals and as a nation to ensure that protests take place in a peaceful and incident-free manner.

I thank you.

Issued by: South African Police Service, January 24 2014

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