As three leading community activists, belonging to the Unemployed People's Movement, and a resident, prepare to appear in court this week for public violence, experts maintain that their constitutional rights have been infringed.
As three leading community activists, belonging to the Unemployed People's Movement, and a resident, prepare to appear in court this week for public violence, experts maintain that their constitutional rights have been infringed.
UPM chairperson Ayanda Kota, spokesperson Xola Mali, deputy chairperson Nombulelo Yami and Phaphamani resident Ntombentsha Budaza will appear in the Grahamstown Magistrate's Court on charges of public violence tomorrow, following their arrest in last month's protests in Phaphamani Township on 10 February.
During violent clashes, police fired rubber bullets and threw stun grenades to disperse crowds who had blockaded the road and lit car tyres in protest. Residents had retaliated by throwing stones at the police.
Lieutenant-Colonel Monray Nel, who was at the scene when police clashed with protesters, said then that the police would investigate a case of public damage to municipal property, but no one has yet been arrested.
According to the UPM, township residents were angered when on 9 February, during a sit-in at City Hall, police forced the protesting residents out into High Street "by threatening to shoot and saying that they are entitled to use force".
In a UPM statement after the arrest and release of its leaders, Mali said: "This is when the anger started. People felt that they were being treated like criminals when they were having genuine demands and questions.
The anger and frustration that has been building for the past 17 years came to a head at this moment."
According to Mali: "The UPM received a call from people on the road blockades and we ran there to see what was happening. "When we arrived, we went to ask the police why they were resorting to violence. They refused to talk to us, but just put us in handcuffs and in the van."
The original protest march, Kota has said, had been about delivering a residents' memorandum of grievances to the mayor in person. But following their arrest on the second day of protests in Phaphamani, Kota and the three others were barred from participating in any march as part of their bail conditions.
Other bail conditions specified none of the four could instigate or organise or participate in a protest. This was why, in the last protest march on 25 February, all four were conspicuous by their absence.
At least two academics from Rhodes University were of the opinion that such bail conditions were unconstitutional in that they stripped away the concerned citizens' right to protest, as well as other constitutional privileges.
Professor Jane Duncan, of the Rhodes School of Journalism and Media Studies, has said: "The activists should not be considered criminals as ordinarily understood because – assuming they are guilty as charged, which still has to be proved – they were not motivated by personal gain, whereas ordinary criminals are.
"They are motivated by a need to give a voice to community frustrations. A legitimate protest, called to voice these frustrations in a legally recognised way, was itself criminalised."
Xola Mali, in a media statement, said: "We are not the leaders of the people. People lead themselves. People continued to meet and to discuss their issues and to take action even though we were locked up and not part of them."
