South Africa: Kliptown 5 Found Guilty of Public Violence

Justice delayed is justice denied

On the 03rd September 2007 more than twenty comrades were arrested in community protests organized by the Anti Privatisation Forum against the slow or non-delivery of services in Soweto (Kliptown and Protea South). Fourteen comrades were arrested in Protea South though only four of those charged were taken to the Protea Magistrate’s court on the 4th of September 2007 and the others were released after being held captive for more than 24 hours without any charges being laid. In Kliptown, twelve comrades were arrested for public violence including five juveniles (underage, school-going children) and have been appearing in court since September 2007. After more than twenty appearances and almost two years, five were found guilty of public violence yet the community was arrested for demanding housing.

Criminalisation of protest

Since the African National Congress government took over power in 1994, there have been more than 6000 protests in the country because of slow and none service delivery. Many of the frustrated community members have protested out of anger and frustration from none delivery of basic services in their communities. In South Africa, public violence is regarded as a criminal charge which allows the state to demand higher bail amounts from the very poor people. Communities have called on their elected local ward councilors to account for the none delivery of basic services and they have also sent countless un-answered memorandums and petitions. Provincial and local governments have failed to communicate their progress report in terms of development with the community. People have resorted to use the same tactics that were used to over throw the apartheid government and take into the streets for bargaining powers.

In a case like Khutsong & Matatiele, bargaining through protest has worked but for others like Kliptown this is not the case. The Kliptown defendants were all released on R500 bail each. The reason given by the magistrate for this heavy fine was that communities have to be discouraged from taking to the street to demand service delivery while there are other options to ensure their voices are heard. On the 14th of August 2007 - less than a month before their arrest - the Kliptown community handed over a petition together with a memorandum to the Eldorado Municipal Offices, demanding the recall of the useless ward councilor and further demanding that the Department of Housing address their housing needs. No response to the memorandum was received from either the municipality or the Housing Department. It is clear now that the State wants to make an example out of the five Kliptown residents by giving them a harsh sentence for demanding their rights to housing. The state does not have enough evidence to prosecute the accused but it wants to do so in order to cover up the failures of the ANC government. On many occasions, the people of South Africa are made to believe that our judiciary is independent of the state yet this is difficult to prove.

Problems with Legal Assistance

Criminalising protestors makes it more difficult to find free legal representation and the APF secured the services of pro-bono lawyer. It was unfortunate that the lawyer didn’t represent the accused for the entire trial and had to leave the matter over to the state lawyer. In the past, there has been distrust from the community to the use of Legal Aid Board lawyers given experiences where defendants have been effectively forced to submit guilty pleas so that they could get suspended sentences. However through engagements between poor communities organised by the APF and the Legal Aid Board, the relationship with the Legal Aid Board has taken a more positive turn. Nonetheless, securing committed and affordable legal assistance/aid for community members arrested for legitimate social and political protest remains a huge challenge for organisations of the poor. Again the APF renews its call for progressive lawyers to step up and be counted in the struggle of the poor for their basic rights so that we could appeal against this case before the comrades are sentenced on Friday (13th March 2009).

The difficulty in our country is class segregation where the rich are given a choice to pick their legal defence lawyer but the poor are not given that right. So if you fight for your constitutional right to access basic services as a member of a poor community and you are more likely to get a bullet in you back than a roof over your head. If you have something to say, put it in a memorandum to your local ward councilor and pray if that helps you but forget about hearing a response. Ward-councilors don’t call consultative community meetings and they can’t be recalled for non-delivery of services until their term is up in five years. The poor will continue to live in abject poverty while the government uses arms to answer the poor.

For more information please call Silumko Radebe @ 072 1737 268 or 011 333 8338