Update: Click to read an interview with Sysem Cele by Kate Gunby and here to listen to an audio interview with System Cele by Sokarie Ekine of Black Looks.
March 24, 2007
To the Editor, The Daily Sun
Dear Editor
On Wednesday 21 March, Human Rights Day, the police came to attack the people of the Kennedy Road settlement. It was about three in the morning. They kicked down people’s doors without knocking and asked for everybody’s names in each house. If you’re name was one they were looking for they just put you in their van.
The police don’t treat us right here at Kennedy. Everybody knows how they attack us when we try and march and how to punish us for marching they always arrest us, make us stay in the cells and come to court 4 or 5 times before dropping the charges. But they do other things too. They come to raid at night saying they are looking for dagga and stolen goods. When they raid they hit us, they insult us, they mess our houses up, they make the men do press ups and they steal our money and cell phones. They tell us that if we don’t give them our money they will arrest us. Because the police treat us like we are all criminals and because most of the police are themselves criminals we have our own Safety & Security Forum. This team is chosen to deal with crime in the community.
Here in Kennedy we have a runner who is running everyday. His name is Khanyile. One day some few weeks ago while he was running a criminal unknown to Khanyile attacked him. The criminal took his R800 takkies and an expensive watch that Khanyile had won in the Comrades Marathon. He wasn’t satisfied with taking the takkies and the watch though – he also stabbed 18 holes into the poor man.
Khanyile reported the matter to the Safety and Security and Forum. They advised the poor man to report the matter to the police and they asked the community to report to them if anyone knew or heard anything. Khanyile opened the case with the police.
Here at Kennedy we have a well known criminal. I can’t mention his name because he is a dangerous man but everyone knows who he is. During the investigation by Safety and Security it come out that the criminal was a man from Ntuzuma who was a friend of the criminal in Kennedy Road. The Safety and Security team went to ask the Kennedy Road criminal if this was true. He admitted it and promised to bring him to the team.
Later he bought that man to the community. Khanyile identified the man as the criminal was stabbed him 18 holes. The criminal admitted that he had done it and was very arrogant. Some people in the community became angry and began to hit the criminal. Safety and Security called the police to come and fetch the criminal. The police did come and fetch him and they were hitting him and kicking him as he got into the van. That was all in February.
Now the police came back on Human Rights day claiming that the Safety & Security killed the man. First they arrested 10 people then they released 1. The community quickly gathered to march and show their anger. Again the police came to arrest more people shooting and spraying tear-gas on them. Just imagine that on Human Rights Day here at Kennedy people were abused and brutalized by the police. The same thing happened on Human Rights Day two years ago. Is this a day that we must fear? If rights are for all humans then it is clear that for some people we are not humans.
Today it is Saturday. Yesterday the people taken by the police appeared in court for a crime they didn’t commit. The reason I’m saying this is because if the man died in the van or on the following day then why didn’t the police come back then? If they were busy that day why didn’t they come back on the following day? It is because they needed all this time to think of the lies that they were going to lay against the Kennedy people. So the case is coming back to court this coming Friday. The police said that they still need time to prove these people guilty. When are the police going to stop fighting with us for nothing? The worst then is that the man who stabbed 18 times reported the case and they did nothing. They didn’t investigate the case. Now that man is one of the arrested! They still want to arrest more people. They must tell the truth of what they did to the dead man in their van and in their cells. They broke my teeth when I was on a march which is my human right. That march was just starting. We hadn’t hurt anybody but they broke my teeth. Now they are trying to hide behind the people of Kennedy so that they don’t get caught for what they did to this criminal.
System Cele, Kennedy Road, 0721067291
http://abahlali.org/node/570
Police Brutality
System Cele
Nowadays police brutality has become a daily bread, especially in the informal settlements. Whether you are a male or a female to the police it's the same. I don't know where did the police bury their conscience.
A time ago when you see the police van you felt that you are now safe, but now things have changed. In the Kennedy Road informal settlement they come when ever they want. They go door to door searching men, beating them without reason, making them to do 'push ups'.
On the 19th March 2005 we were having a big march against our councillor. The police where there to play their role. They chased us with their vans and grabbed 14 comrades including 2 teenagers still schooling and pregnant woman. They took them to the police station and beat them. One of the teenagers they let the dog loose to bite her in the leg. That was abusive. Once again, above all that, they sent them to Westville prison. They were in that place for ten days. But 'Our 14 Heroes' won their case.
On 14 November 2005, we had a march from Foreman Road to the City Manager Mike Sutcliffe and the Mayor Obed Mlaba. Again the police come to show how brave they are when it comes to dealing with the poor. In that march I was in the front.
The police asked us to wait and we waited. They said they wanted to talk to our leaders. By the time we waited, we were singing our mzabalazo songs. Suddenly the police they took out their shields and guns and started to fight us - not fighting with us because we were defenceless. We didn't fight them, they were only fighting us.I tried to run but one of the police pushed me and I fell on my knees. I tried to get up but he hit me very hard on the back of the head with something I didn't see. I fell hard on my face and lost my front teeth.
They took us to the police station with other comrades while we were injured, just like that. Later they released us because they were done with us. We tried to open a case, but we wre ignored, cause we are nothing to them.
Toway when ever I see the police van I see no safety but enemies of the poor, bullies who do not have a conscience. The government is doing nothing about the police brutality in this country. If he can't (or won't) control the police as his own children then how can he meet the needs of the poor if he can't even defend them, if he can't even punish those cruel police? That's why I see no freedom for us poor people, I see no justice, no equal rights but only oppression for us. The must end.
All the poor people must unite and fight back in a strategic way. We are not "punching bags" to be beaten by those downpressors. People united will never be defeated.
*System Cele is 26. She lives in the Kennedy Road settlement. She was a co-editor of the 'Hear Our Cries Pamphlet' which contains letters to the Mayor and the President from children living in Kennedy Road and is on this website at http://abahlali.org/node/177 She has been an uMhlali from the very beginning. She is now unemployed but at the time of the March 2005 road blockade she was working night shift as a cleaner at the Sugar Mill Casino. She says that the cameras in the casino are always watching the cleaners - making sure that they don't steal, that they don't talk to the gamblers, that they don't dance a little bit if a song they like comes on. That morning she came straight from work under the camera to block the road with burning tyres - the action that lead to the formation of a movement with members from almost 40 settlements.
