Although the Samwu strike is now over, tensions still persist between Grahamstown citizens and the police.
Advocate Jock McConnachie requested that Grahamstown station commander Brigadier Morgan Govender tell him whether any Samwu strikers would be arrested for trashing the streets.
Although the Samwu strike is now over, tensions still persist between Grahamstown citizens and the police.
Advocate Jock McConnachie requested that Grahamstown station commander Brigadier Morgan Govender tell him whether any Samwu strikers would be arrested for trashing the streets.
McConnachie also asked whether members of the public were entitled to perform citizen arrests. The recently renamed South African Police Force (SAPF) responded to McConnachie’s request, but only after the strike had ended.
They claimed that officers were closely monitoring the striking Samwu members and that if their conduct required action, action would be taken.
The SAPF also acknowledged that private citizens were permitted to arrest a person who commits a crime in their presence.
However, the SAPF advised that arrests not be made, as “it may aggravate the situation and may also lead to persons being seriously injured”.
“I did believe that arrests would be made, I don’t know why there weren’t, and now that the strike is over, we will never know if they would have made arrests or not,” said McConnachie in response to the SAPF’s statement. “Obviously citizen arrests would be the last resort, but what else can one do?
“Hopefully the police’s undertaking to arrest strikers will hold true for the next round of strikes, which is bound to happen.
Otherwise we will have to perform citizen arrests,” he said. “Even though the police’s response came after the strike, I would like to believe that it was a sincere undertaking and that it serves as a warning to strikers.“They can’t just do as they please and treat the community with such disrespect.”
