The South African Police Service (or is it, force? I can never tell these days) seems to have warmly and enthusiastically embraced it's boss, Bheki Cele's rather hard line approach to law enforcement. Cele, never one to shy away from shooting his mouth off, has brought back that old macho approach to policing, which was taken to all kinds of lows and extremes during Apartheid. If officers aren't beating people to death, they're shooting anything that moves. In their spare time they... well, they assault and shoot. To a degree I support the new aggressive policing we are seeing. It's not an easy job being a cop. You're often derided and criticised. You are an easy target for liberals, criminals and whingers alike. You get paid a pittance for working long hours, under dangerous conditions. But that's what you sign up for. Without getting tangled up in the debate over cops abusing their shoot-to-kill dogma, so often preached by Cele, I'd like to steer my criticism onto how this gung-ho-ness appears to have been transplanted into almost every aspect Of SAPS's new 'ideology' of law enforcement.
When Hawks officials start bull dozing their ways into newsrooms, arresting journalists, there s most certainly cause for concern. I'm, of course, referring to the arrest of Sunday Time's scribe, Mzilikazi wa Afrika. Police spin doctors offered up the explanation that he was arrested in his capacity as a private citizen, not as a journalist. If wa Afrika did do something wrong, then the Hawks were doing their job. We can only wait and see what details emerge from this saga to determine if the Hawks were simply being what Cele expects them to be - uncompromising and firm - or if they took their mandate too far. But is it a coincidence the arrest came as media bosses debate press freedom and new legislation being mooted to 'regulate' (read: muzzle)journalists? On top of this, wa Afrika's arrest is apparently linked to stories he did on Mpumalanga Premier David Mabuza, who was quick to react to the debacle. In other words, is this a knew jerk reaction to protect senior ANC officials as has become a hallmark of the ruling party. This stinks to high heaven.
Cele, in his small way in comparison to this whole debate, and his motormouth, coupled with his macho posturing (he's never scared to have pictures taken of him posing with automatic assault rifles and loves fashioning his wardrobe on that of Al Capone and Glen Agliotti) has given the green light for his minions to do as they please or as he eloquentlyAt the same time, he's dragged law enforcement back to circa 1960, 1976, 1985, 3-years which stand out in Apartheid history due to how they were characterised by the brutality of the police and other security agencies of the time.
As I watched footage of wa Africa' being taken into custody, surrounded by burly men-in-black, hands reaching to cover cameras amid heated arguments and threats, I had to pinch myself. Is this really South Africa 2010? Am I really watching security agents, apparently drunk on power, virtually storm the offices of a prominent media house to affect an arrest?
I'm pinching myself really hard as I write this and I'm not dreaming. This has happened and I fear will repeat itself. If this is how our men and women in blue are now doing their jobs, can we then expect people, such as journalists, to start 'jumping' from the 10-floor of John Voster Square... oops, my bad, I mean Johannesburg Central police station during interrogation? detention without trial, even? farfethced, you'll ask. So Is a state-run media tribunal .
No comments:
Post a Comment