The Police & Abahlali baseMjondolo

A List of Key Incidents of Police Harassment Suffered by Abahlali baseMjondolo
- compiled by Stephanie Lynch and Zodwa Nsibande

Please note that this list of the main instances of police harassment suffered by Abahlali baseMjondolo does not include the day to day police harassment suffered by shack dwellers in general which is clearly most acute in the areas under the jurisdiction of the Sydenham Police station. Day to day harassment includes racial abuse, racialised stop and search practices, casual violence, 'raids' in which bribes are demanded on the pain of arrest, men are randomly forced to do press ups on the threat of assault and in which electronic goods without a purchase receipt are simply confiscated by the police on the grounds that they must be 'stolen'. At times this generalised day to day abuse poses serious risk to the safety of shack dwellers. For instance an unarmed 17 year old boy visiting family at the Foreman Road settlement was shot in the knee on New Year's Eve 2006 for urinating in public. However it should be noted that not all officers at the Sydenham Police station take part in this abusive behaviour and that some have sough to meet with Abahlali baseMjondolo to express their concerns. Indeed Abahlali has good relationships with certain officers, African and Indian, and settlement committees work with those officers against crime.