{"id":1220,"date":"2020-04-07T15:57:25","date_gmt":"2020-04-07T13:57:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marxistworkersparty.org.za\/?p=1220"},"modified":"2020-04-22T13:23:18","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T11:23:18","slug":"militarised-lockdown-for-the-working-class-poor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/?p=1220","title":{"rendered":"Militarised Lockdown for the Working Class & Poor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Shaun Arendse & Weizmann Hamilton<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is growing concern over police and military brutality in the enforcement of the regulations for South Africa\u2019s twenty-one day lockdown. Videos have circulated on social media of soldiers beating up and kicking residents in informal settlements, forcing them to do frog jumps and roll in the mud as they arrogate to themselves the right to mete-out justice on the spot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The shack-dwellers organisation, Abahlali baseMjondolo, reports that for three successive days, starting on Day 1 of the lockdown, eThekwini municipal officials oversaw evictions and the demolition of shacks by private security companies. The eThekwini Municipality responded to AbM\u2019s protests by returning the following day, this time backed by the army \u2013 the SA National Defence Force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Defence Minister, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula was obliged to issue a statement condemning the brutality. But it was clear no action would be taken. The real attitude of the state is shown by the inaction of Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu over the AbM\u2019s complaints. Police Minister Bheki Cele has clearly taken to his increased role with relish, declaring at a press conference that \u201cwe have no issues arresting people if we need to, so don\u2019t give us a reason to.\u201d He has lightmindedly dismissed complaints, describing the police\u2019s behaviour as \u201ckind\u201d and warning that people have not yet seen \u201cbrutality\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Journalists in Johannesburg gave a good indication of how\nsome SAPS members interpreted the cue of the Police Minister on the enforcement\nof the lockdown regulations. On Day 4 they observed the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At midday on Monday, a white Toyota hatchback \u2026 was cruising through the quieter than usual streets of Hillbrow, a densely-populated suburb near Johannesburg\u2019s city centre.<\/p>

Inside was a plainclothes policeman wearing jeans, a red jacket and surgical gloves, and three colleagues in SAPS uniforms.<\/p>

The vehicle would drive a few blocks and come to a halt, and the plainclothes cop with a sjambok [whip] would leap out and chase civilians apparently breaking strict lock-down rules. If he caught them, he would beat them with the whip \u2013 sometimes administering up to eight blows.<\/p>

\u201cWe are sjambokking people\u2026 People cannot be disciplined without it,\u201d said the uniformed driver of the vehicle. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to see three people together without carrying anything. What are they doing? Then you ask, \u2018Where are you going?\u2019, they don\u2019t answer.\u201d<\/p>

He claimed that this kind of force was permitted during the national lockdown, and that they were following orders from \u201cthe top\u201d.[1]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In the neighbouring suburb of Yeoville a video showed\npolice firing rubber bullets at residents. This footage was captured before the\npolice realised journalists were on the scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In parts of Durban policing has been business as usual. The xenophobic harassment of foreign-born spaza shop owners has continued with police demanding bribes and confiscating goods. Again, the lead on this was set from \u201cthe top\u201d. The Minister of Small Business Development, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, announced that only spaza shops run by South African citizens would be allowed to operate during the lockdown.[2]<\/a> Although this was later withdrawn, alongside Cele\u2019s comments, it nevertheless helped set the tone for the lockdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time of writing, eight people have died as a\nresult of police action. When reported, this exceeded the number of deaths\ncaused by the virus! (News24\u2019s online article has since amended this figure to\nthree without an explanation. Other news outlets continue to use eight.) One of\nthe dead was a man in the Western Cape who was tasered while trying to buy beer\n(prohibited as part of the lockdown). Six cases of police assault have been\nhanded to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate. This likely only\nscratches the surface of abuses that are taking place given the scale of\nrepression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of the first week of the lockdown SAPS\nconfirmed 17,209 arrests had been made. This will include some who have taken\nadvantage of the lockdown to, for example, rob closed schools and business\npremises. The better indication of the impact of the lockdown on normally\nlaw-abiding people are the 7,450 fines which have been handed out for breaking\nlockdown rules.[3]<\/a>\nNews reports give another flavour of the impact. On 4 April, fifty-five construction\nworkers were arrested for continuing with their work. Their employer was nowhere\nto be found however![4]<\/a> Fifty\nwere arrested while attending a wedding in KZN. Police moved in during the\nexchange of vows, arresting the bride, the groom and the pastor!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

ANC Authoritarianism<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But all of the ANC\u2019s ministers are only following the\nlead of their Commander-in-Chief, President Cyril Ramaphosa. Ahead of the\nlockdown Ramaphosa addressed a televised rally of police officers. He was\ncareful to pepper his speech with assurances that the role of the police would\nbe to \u201chelp, assist and guide\u201d the people of South Africa. But the real heart\nof his message was the following threat:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But of course there will be those who want to take chances. There will be those who will want to cut corners. There will be those whose intent will be wilful, where they will deliberately want to challenge the state. And for those I have a clear message: this is not the time to play with fire. This is not the time to play with the people of South Africa. We are deadly serious about saving lives. And those who want to take chances, those who want to do wrong things, must of course meet the wrath of the South African state.[5]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Ramaphosa is re-treading familiar ground. In 2012, when\nhe was deputy president, infamous emails revealed the tone of his telephone discussions\nwith the then Minister of Police. He characterised a mineworkers\u2019 strike as \u201ca\ncriminal act\u201d requiring \u201cconcomitant action\u201d. The next day thirty-four mineworkers\nwere shot dead in the Marikana Massacre. In the context of growing police militarisation,\nand encouragements by ANC ministers to use deadly force against criminals while\nsignalling that such \u2018excesses\u2019 would be over-looked, Ramaphosa\u2019s pressure easily\ntranslated into the use of deadly force. He has the blood of workers on his\nhands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The choice of the ANC government to rely overwhelmingly\non force and not persuasion in a militarised lockdown reflects the sharp class\npolarisation in society. Years of anti-working class policies and neglect by\nANC politicians, who treat the working class and poor as voting-fodder, has\nproduced a social crisis and deep alienation from governmental authority. The\nplummeting turnout in elections is one indication; the popularity of conspiracy\ntheories to explain the Covid-19 crisis another (see upcoming article).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government calculated that it would be possible to persuade<\/em> the middle class in the\nsuburbs, and higher-paid workers in wealthier township extensions, to\nco-operate with the necessary measures of social distancing. This is what press\nconferences by government ministers, initially conducted exclusively in\nEnglish, have attempted to do. But social distancing is virtually impossible to\nimplement in the overcrowded townships and slum-conditions of the informal\nsettlements. The government decided that the working class and the poor would\nneed to be forced <\/em>to \u2018co-operate\u2019 by\nthe police and army.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Trade Unions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The speed with which the lockdown was implemented caught\ntrade unions and other working class and community organisations by surprise. There\nwas no time to organise an effective and democratic alternative to the forcible\nimposition of a lockdown. For now, the working class sees little other choice\nthan to put-up with it as a lesser-evil to the unchecked spread of Covid-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the lack of organisational preparation is rooted in the political and ideological outlook of the entire leadership of the trade union movement across the board \u2013 from Cosatu on the right, to Saftu on the left. Little could have been expected from the Cosatu leadership who have remained voluntary inmates of the Tripartite Alliance political prison, despite Marikana, the attacks on the right to strike etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the Saftu leadership is itself generally singing from\nthe same hymn sheet as Cosatu on the economic crisis aggravated by the\npandemic. That both federations offered to assist the government to help to save\ncapitalism confirms the extent to which both have surrendered their class\nindependence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trade unions and community organisations, should have,\nand still can, approach the pandemic independently. They could organise democratically\nelected anti-corona brigades to provide education, provide supplies, and train\ncommunities to take charge of the implementation of the lockdown guidelines\nthemselves, with resources supplied by the state. On its own this was never\ngoing to be enough. The workers\u2019 movement should have demanded a mass housing\nprogramme to accommodate, particularly informal settlement residents, as a step\ntoward their complete eradication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the absence of the counter-pressure of the organised working\nclass, the state has been allowed unchecked to take charge of overcoming a\nproblem of its own making \u2013 a massive housing backlog and sprawling squatter camps\npolitely referred to as \u2018informal\u2019 settlements, that lack water, sanitation and\nbasic amenities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even in \u2018the best of times\u2019 policing in South Africa looks\nlittle different to a war against the poor \u2013 with widespread corruption,\nharassment, violence, torture, rape, murder, extortion and bribery. The\nincreased scope of operations and fresh abuses can only add to the crisis of\nlegitimacy that the police already face in many communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The township\u2019s new \u2018occupying forces\u2019 can act like a\npetrol hose, pumping fuel on the social explosion that is being prepared in\nSouth Africa by the economic consequences of the lockdown. These are having a\ndevastating impact on the millions of people who live hand-to-mouth and\nday-to-day. Especially if the lockdown is extended, this virtually guarantees\nwidespread confrontations between communities that need to eat and the police\nofficers and soldiers ordered to keep them at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dimly recognising the dangers, the ANC government has\neased some restrictions \u2013 allowing spaza shops to re-open and informal traders\nto resume business. But the highly secretive plans to relocate\ntens-of-thousands of inhabitants from twenty-nine informal settlements around\nthe country to \u2018de-densify\u2019 communities could provoke serious confrontations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Workers Movement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the legacies of the struggle against apartheid is\nthat police officers have the right to join an independent trade union. Soldiers\ndo too, though with greater restrictions \u2013 the South African National Defence\nUnion is prohibited from affiliating to a federation. Around the world, this is\nthe exception rather than the norm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under capitalism, the bosses require tight-control of the\npolice force to use it against workers\u2019 struggles \u2013 especially strikes \u2013 that\nthreaten their control of the workplace and their profits. It is very risky for\nthe capitalist class to allow police officers to be a full part of the workers\u2019\nmovement. It makes them unreliable for the defence of capitalism. But it can\nalso be difficult for the bosses to resist this. The rank-and-file are\nrecruited from the working class and live in working class communities. They\nface challenges over pay and working conditions. So at this stage, the balance\nthe ANC government has struck is to allow independent police unions but it denies\nthem the right to strike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nSaftu-affiliated police officers union, Sapu, issued a statement condemning\npolice brutality during the lockdown saying that they refuse to close ranks \u201cwith\nrogue elements like these.\u201d Sapu went on to say that \u201caccountability is the cornerstone of our\nexistence, therefore we have to be accountable for every action one takes\u2026 We\nhave to perform our duty within the spirit of human and democratic rights.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Encouragingly, this pulls in the opposite direction to\nthe messages given to the police by Ramaphosa and Cele, or the deafening\nsilence of the leadership of the Cosatu-affiliated and ANC-aligned police union\nPopcru. Sapu\u2019s position needs to be fleshed-out and entrenched in the workers\nmovement through a clear programme that clarifies that it is to the working\nclass majority and their communities that the police must be accountable \u2013\nduring the lockdown, but also after it. This will not be easy to achieve\nbecause of the contradictory position of rank-and-file police officers under\ncapitalism, and, as long as capitalism exists, it can never be fully\naccomplished. Therefore, alongside a strategy of drawing the ranks of the\npolice and army towards the organised working class, working class communities\nmust be organised to ensure compliance with social distancing measures and to\ndefend communities against criminals, but also against any police and army\nharassment or violence.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/sup><\/a>Police Use Sjamboks and Rubber Bullets\nto Enforce Hillbrow Lockdown<\/a>, Micah Reddy and Simon Allison, amaBhungane<\/em>\n(31 March 2020)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2]<\/sup><\/a>Rogue Cops in Durban Demand \u2018Protection\nFee\u2019 from Spazas<\/a>,\nSandile Motha, Daily Maverick<\/em>(5 April\n2020)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[3]<\/a>Over\n17,000 People Arrested Since Lockdown Kicked-Off<\/a>, News24<\/em> (3\nApril 2020)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[4]<\/sup><\/a>Workers\nat a Johannesburg construction site have been arrested after they were found at\nwork despite the national lockdown<\/a>, News24 (4 April 2020)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[5]<\/sup><\/a> Video of speech: Ramaphosa\nWishes SAPS, SANDF Members Well Before Lockdown<\/a>, eNCA<\/em> (26 March 2020)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is growing concern over police and military brutality in the enforcement of South Africa\u2019s twenty-one day lockdown regulations. <\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1226,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coronavirus"],"aioseo_notices":[],"acf":[],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1220"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1232,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1220\/revisions\/1232"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}