I Thought We Said #ACAB: The Purpose of Policing
COLLAGE BY NTokozO mdaki
In 2000, a Special Assignment program was aired that exposed the vicious dog training techniques used by the North East Rand dog unit.
In the program we are shown a video captured by the officers themselves, one that the dog unit took so much pride in that they would screen the footage for their fellow policemen and friends at a braai. The footage itself is from 1998 and portrays 6 policemen who wanted to train 2 young police dogs to be vicious and aggressive. 2 older dogs were to be used to teach the new dogs how to attack and bring down a human target. Those human targets were 3 immigrants that had been picked up, without any charges, for the sole purpose of this dog training.
The video was shown for the Minister of Safety and Security, Steve Tshwete, for their comment but also present were National Police Commissioner, Jackie Selebie, his deputy, Andre Pruis and high ranking detectives. The response is one of disgust and swift action as Selebie calls for the arrest of the officers involved as well as the unit commander. In an one-on-one interview after the viewing, Tshwete speaks of the work that has been undertaken to rid the South African police force of “these backward elements” such as 14 000 prosecutions and over 2000 suspensions for “various kinds of corruption and even outright racism”. This was the reason then-President Thabo Mbeki had appointed Tshwete, to bring a morale to an undermanned and underpaid police force beset with the political history of maintaining apartheid, rampant corruption and the constant rise of violent crime.
However, it could also be viewed as an appointment of an ally by Mbeki. In 2002, Tshwete appeared on the SABC and accused Cyril Ramaphosa, Tokyo Sexwale and Mathews Phosa of a plot to harm Mbeki - basically a coup. Mbeki even called in for a television interview in which he encouraged those with information to come forward. These claims were later rubbished but proved the paranoia that surrounded Mbeki, further proven by their attempts to shield long-time ally Police Commissioner Selebi from corruption charges. This paranoia was ultimately at the root of their demise and gave the following president, Jacob Zuma, a seemingly cleanslate that they were undeserving of - they were Mbeki’s deputy and just as entrenched in the corruption of the time. This was proven true from the start of their presidency by the Nkandla scandal, which when first reported was estimated to cost taxpayers R65 million but the Public Protector's report ultimately put the price at over R240 million. The then-president used the institutions at their disposal to absolve themselves, as Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi justified the upgrades of Zuma’s Nkandla homestead and Police Minister Nathi Nhleko released a report clearing them of any wrongdoing. When Thuli Mandonsela’s tenure as Public Protector came to an end, Zuma wasted no time in appointing an ally in Busisiwe Mkhwebane - currently suspended as they await an enquiry into their fitness to hold office. This comes after pursuing action against Independent Police Investigative Directorate investigators that were probing corruption in senior SAPS ranks during a time of peak State Capture (2016/2017), and for this they faced relentless harassment including suspensions, trumped-up charges, death threats, disciplinaries and murder. These investigations presented a threat to current Minister of Police Bheki Cele and those close to them.
The picture starts to get clearer that the individuals in charge have never had an interest in the well-being of the country’s citizenry - with the current president, Cyril Ramaphosa, having made the call for police to be involved during the strikes at Marikana. Viewing the legitimate wage issues of the miners through a political lens, as the Lonmin mine workers had gone on strike without the backing of their leadership within the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). Ramaphosa is the founder of the NUM, which has close ties with the ANC, and sat on the board of Lonmin as a non-executive director. On the 8th of August, a few workers of various Lonmin mines held a meeting with NUM leaders to demand a significant salary increase, to which the union leaders present refused to support. The following day, thousands of workers from all Lonmin mines organised themselves to march directly to management to demand this increase. On the 10th, workers marched to the offices of Lonmin management, who refused to speak to them and after an hour fetched an NUM leader who reprimanded them. The leader made it clear they would not receive anything without working through the union. These leaders, who are senior to shop-stewards, are elected to these positions by workers for 3 years. However, a clear conflict of interest shows up as these elected leaders receive their normal workers salary and a R14 000 bonus from Lonmin. Rightfully frustrated with the lack of willingness to meet, from both their workplace and union, 3000 workers carried out a wildcat strike and refused to clock in that evening. On the 11th, a few workers decided to go to NUM main offices, which also happen to be the ANC and SACP offices, to present a memorandum in the hopes that they would take they’re wage demands seriously - this was a call for a R12,500 minimum wage for all miners. There was anger amongst the workers that their leaders refused to represent them but none of them would’ve expected that once 100-150 metres from the NUM offices, the leaders would start firing at them. 2 would die and this would lead to the workers arming themselves in self defence, leading up to the massacre that took place on the 16th of August.
In these occurrences though, it seems that there is cognitive dissonance that keeps us from questioning the structures that allow for these injustices to take place, we'd rather look for a single individual to easily identify blame to. So came the commissions of enquiry, in which the final report exonerated the political figures involved but Police Commissioner Riah Phiyega was ultimately suspended. It would take years, a global pandemic and nationwide lockdown for the conversation of police brutality to take place in a meaningful manner again - as the death of George Floyd sparked protests around the world with the certainty that Black Lives Matter, these were the responses to the the SAPS working with impunity during lockdown regulations, killing 11 and arresting 230 000 by the 1st of June 2020 while also continuing on their mistreatment of sex workers. During that time there was a revolutionary energy that was calling for the questioning and decolonization of the current structures under which we find ourselves. These ideas were pushed by instagram pages such as @copsareflops and their document “Re-Imagining Justice in South Africa Beyond Policing”, in which they make the argument for the abolition of police and prison system - “that a better approach is to target the conditions giving way to social harm, alongside responding to such incidents non-punitively.” The current structure of government can be described as a dysfunctional neoliberal oligarchy that has been exploiting its citizens while being incapable of offering protection or stability in return. These were components that allowed for the July Riots to take place, a fractured ruling party filled with individuals all vying for power. Writer Christopher McMichaels points out “It is in the government’s interest to pretend we have an unsolvable public order situation because it means expanded power and budgets for the police, prisons and the private security complex. This is the South African version of disaster capitalism, where socioeconomic turmoil and collapse are more lucrative to exploit than to solve.”
Outdoor Investment Holdings, which owns hunting and outdoor wholesalers Inyathi Supplies who provide firearms to the South African market, had a very strong performance in 2021. This was partly driven by increased sales of firearms and self-defence weapons after the July Riots. Individuals such as South African Gun owners Association (SAGA) chairperson Damian Enslin are lobbying for looser gun laws, having spoken at the DA Firearms Summit in June of 2021. They claim that with many unable to afford private security, they have turned to owning firearms because of the police inaction to deal with crime. However, Enslin refuses to acknowledge the causes of crime: the high unemployment rate in this country - if they were willing, they wouldn’t be so erect at the idea of selling even more guns into a country that is spiralling at the hands of an illegal gun trade, and it has been alleged that the police are at the heart of this underground industry. This illegal gun trade is partly to blame for the recent mass shootings according to KZN Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkwanazi and Gun Free SA reports that 23 people a day are shot and killed in South Africa.
This “unsolvable public order situation” shocked the country again as an incident of gang rape and armed robbery took place in Krugersdorp, West Village, a crew of 22 (12 women, 10 men) were shooting a gospel music video in a disused mine. The community complains of blanket wearing gun wielding men, known as “zama zama’s”, who have been active in acts of bullying and intimidation, as well as crimes like robberies, burglaries, rapes and murders. Their community has no working streetlights and have had to resort to a 6pm curfew to ensure their safety, but there’s been a naked attempt by political parties to co-opt the moment while also aligning themselves with the fascist anti-immigrant Operation Dudula for political gain. On the 4th of August, the ANC marched to Hammanskraal police station led by ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe, as they can barely explain what they’re marching for. Giving a vague support of the fight against Gender Based Violence while also spouting a xenophobic populist message that “the communities are willing to co-operate with law enforcement agencies to uproot illegal immigrants”. The ANC and other political parties in South Africa are more than happy to scapegoat immigrants as the root of the problem for crime, gender based violence, drug use etc. while cops who rape are rarely disciplined. The government has only made statement after statement, promise after promise and policies that they don’t follow through on. This is the point that Mandisa Khanyile, Director of Rise Up Against Gender Based Violence, makes when the question of chemical castration as punishment for rape is put to them, that these punishments don’t serve as a deterrent for rapists - that there has to be a switch from the focus being in punishment but rather in prevention, by executing on service delivery and the implementation of prevention measures, this would serve the public greater.
Khanyile, in some ways, has repeated the ideas of Angela Davis and prison abolitionists alike, the idea that we should be focused on the elements that lead to individuals committing these crimes. As previously discussed, unemployment and the violent crime rate show a strong correlation and there is literature that proves many sexual offenders in prisons in South Africa have histories of dysfunctional families and abuse, childhood trauma, addiction disorders and low socio-economic status. To understand the unemployment and poverty in our country, we have to have an understanding that from its formations, the ANC was led by a mission school educated black elite, and their aspirations were to build up the black middle class and black participation in capitalism. With this understanding, we must now ask ourselves, who would stand to gain from integration of black people within the capitalist system - those with education or those without? Clearly those without education would serve as labour for the black educated middle class, our country sits at the result of ANC officials being willing to pursue neo-liberal policies that benefited corporations over the needs of the majority of the population. This training of ideology continues to play out as children of the black bourgeoisie enter private schools (which are institutions of colonialism) and are faced with the question of assimilation into a culture of domination. These institutions are meant for networking amongst the future change makers of society, in similar fashion to American Ivy League societies. On the other hand, the children of the working class have to make due with schools that are underfunded, overcrowded, understaffed and have a crumbling infrastructure. These children grow up in working class environments that are crime riddled, the effect can be seen in a 2013 study that showed that coloured males aged between 18 - 65 were 12 times more likely to be imprisoned than white men with black males being 6 times more likely.
With this understanding we see how the police work as a system to protect capital and reproduce capitalism's way of thinking. As Caroline Velli explains, “Policing does not solve the issue of crime. More than anything, it is part of the mechanisms that create crime, by maintaining the private property relations that uphold our unequal society and enforcing the everyday criminalization of poor people trying to improve their lives. The harms of policing are not aberrations from the norm. They are what policing is and has always been, because of its systemic function. And therefore it is unfixable.” This means not relying on Carceral Feminism to curb violence against women, but defunding the police and diverting those resources into education, housing, food security, healthcare - the issues that lead most people into committing crimes - and seeking a restorative justice approach in dealing with conflict, a process in which the victim and the offender and, where appropriate, any other individuals or community members affected by a crime participate together actively in the resolution of matters arising from the crime, generally with the help of a facilitator. Ernest Wamba-dia-Wamba Bazunini also speaks of this, in Tri-Continental interview: The Thought and Practice of an Emancipatory Politics for Africa, return to community based conflict resolution - describing the traditions of their community in rural Congo, with the Mbongi being the place in which this would take place and nzonzi’s working as facilitators.
This would require us as a society to refuse the label of “monster” when speaking of individuals who carry out these crimes, but instead recognize them as human beings that have been deeply hurt by the systems of oppression we uphold as a society. Ziyanda Stuurman states in their book, Can We Be Safe, “For the purposes of the larger discussion on crime and justice and community safety, it is quite obvious that the origins and continued operation of the prison system has nothing to do with us, the public. Driven by our fears and anxieties, many of us have given up on the idea that prisons are places of rehabilitation; in fact, as Patricia Manganye found in her master’s thesis research on rehabilitation programmes in maximum correctional facilities in the North West, “people regard correctional institutions as schools of crime where offenders learn new ways of committing crime”. Instead of believing they can be rehabilitated, we want to see criminals get their comeuppance, their just deserts, and what we feel they deserve in the time they spend in prison. Because so few criminals are arrested and tried and convicted, we look at every person in prison as deserving of whatever happens to them there. Our views on “justice” also often reflect feelings of powerlessness and our need to take back as much power as we can with every successful prison sentence handed down and announced in the media. In this sense, we don’t see individual people accused of crime, those remanded in custody and those convicted and sentenced to prison time as people: we see them as examples of a failing criminal justice system that works sometimes.” This is the constant cycle we’ve found ourselves on when discussing these issues of crime, going around in circles and even delving into the depths of sadism.
To help understand the challenge that lays ahead for us, we can look to a quote from Paulo Friere’s The Pedagogy of The Oppressed, “The oppressed suffer from the duality which has established itself in their innermost being. They discover that without freedom they cannot exist authentically. Yet, although they desire authentic existence, they fear it. They are at one and the same time themselves and the oppressor whose consciousness they have internalised. The conflict lies in the choice between being wholly themselves or being divided; between ejecting the oppressor within or not ejecting them; between human solidarity or alienation; between following prescriptions or having choices; between being spectators or actors; between acting or having the illusion of acting through the action of the oppressors; between speaking out or being silent, castrated in their power to create and re-create, in their power to transform the world. This is the tragic dilemma of the oppressed which their education must take into account.”
Related Articles:
