Category Archives: Andries Tatane

Sunday Times: Journalists failing South Africa on police violence

Journalists failing South Africa on police violence

Jane Duncan, Sunday Times, 27 October 2013

Last month, 17 year old Nqobile Nzuza was shot dead by the police in a protest over housing and evictions in Cato Crest informal settlement, Durban. Another person was shot and wounded. The protest was part of a series of road-blockades organised by the shackdwellers’ movement, Abahlali baseMjondolo.

The police maintain that they acted in self-defence. They say that they were called to the area to respond to a disturbance. Two policemen were attacked by a large crowd, which stoned their vehicle, breaking the windows, and attempting to pull them from it, and they shot at the crowd to prevent themselves from being killed.

Abahlali denies the police’s claims, stating that the police opened fire on the crowd without provocation. Her family said that she had been shot in the back and the movement claimed that the second person was also shot from behind. These details add considerable weight to the movement’s claims that they were both fleeing when they were shot.

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We are all Andries Tatane! People Against Police Brutality

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19 April 2012
People Against Police Brutality

Take Back the Commons will be helping plan and participating in this memorial and march against police brutality.

What: Interfaith Andries Tatane memorial ceremony, testimonial against police
brutality, and march to Harare Police Station
When: Sunday 22nd April 2012 at 12h30
Where: Way of Life Church / Multi-purpose centre, Mandela Park, Khayelitsha
Directions: Visit http://g.co/maps/ucmky or contact Moza @ 0791176943 / 0213672122

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We are all Andries Tatane!

There is a little bit of Andries Tatane in each and every one of us.

As he fought for service delivery for his community in Ficksburg, we fight for toilets, electricity, houses and land here in Cape Town.

As he lived in the hellish township of Meqheleng, many of us are stuck in hell-like conditions in Khayelitsha, Nyanga, Delft and Manenberg.

As he was attacked, shot, beaten and ultimately killed by police for standing up for what he believed in, many of us are at times also attacked, shot, beaten and a few of us have even been killed at their hands.

As he believed in freedom and dignity for himself and his community, we know that we remain unfree and that it is only through continued struggle that we may liberate ourselves and one another.

We are all Andries Tatane!

To commemorate the life, activism and the death of Tatane and countless other victims of police brutality, we are holding a memorial ceremony and testimonial on Sunday the 22nd of April. Through this event, we hope to build a shared consciousness about our struggle for dignity and against police brutality. Following the memorial, we will march to Harare Police Station where we will hand over a memorandum to the police and demand that they sign an undertaking that they will no longer engage in any acts of intimidation, violence and brutality against the people of Khayelitsha.

We are all Andries Tatane!

In 2009, police shot dead at least 556 people. Police suppression of protests have occurred recently in Hangberg, Blikkiesdorp, Khayelitsha, and Rondebosch Common. In the townships, almost everyone we know has had at least some negative experience with the police.

Thus, as long as we remain quiet and divided, the police will continue to arrest us without cause, beat our youth, and repress our movements, and kill our most vocal community members.

All are welcome so please join us this Sunday.

For more information see our Program below:

12h30 Opening
13h00 Memorial ceremony conducted by Pastor Skosana
13h30 Testimonials: expressing our disgust at the treatment by the police by Nkwame Cedile
14h30 SOS space: art and music against police brutality ? by Soundz of the South
14h50 Mkhonto to Andries Tatane
15h00 March to the police station
16h00 Closure

De Lille: In memory of Tatane, we call on you to account for police violence in Cape Town

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De Lille: In memory of Tatane, we call on you to account for police violence in Cape Town

Friday the 13th of April 2012
Press Statement by activists in support of Andries Tatane

It is exactly one year since the South African government murdered teacher and activist Andries Tatane.

Today we are holding a surprise funeral procession inside the Cape Town Civic Centre. At exactly 12pm, we will walk together inside the Civic Centre and lead a funeral procession in honour of Tatane and the other hundreds of people who die at the hands of the SAPS every single year.

We will call on Patricia de Lille and her cabinet to come down from her office and join the funeral procession and pay her respects to our fallen freedom fighters.

We will also call on her to attend our memorial service for Tatane and other victims of police violence which will be held in Mandela Park (Khayelitsha) on the 22 of April 2012. At this memorial service, communities from all over Cape Town will be asked to come forward and testify about their own experiences with the police.

It is clear now to many that it is not only the individual actions of police that are violent and vicious, but the administration of all three tiers of government which sanction and often even instigate such violence.

At the national level, the militarisation of the South Africa Police Service is one example of this.

Here in Cape Town, the DA-led government is equally complicit. For example:

* The weekly harassment by the Anti-Land Invasions Unit and the Metro Police against the Symphony Way Pavement Dwellers after their brutal eviction in from the N2 Gateway in February 2008.
* The attack on the community of Hangberg authorised by Helen Zille where hundreds were shot with rubber bullets and three residents each lost an eye (September 2010)
* The violent eviction of thousands of landless people from Swartklip field in Mitchell’s Plain (May 2011)
* The shooting and arrest of peaceful protesters at Khayelitsha Hospital and the deployment of the South African Army to intimidate protesters (January 2012)
* The pepper spraying, assault and arrest of peaceful protesters on the Rondebosch Common (January 2012)
* The murder of Zamuxolo Zozo of Nyanga in police custody (January 2012)

These are just some of the more well-known examples of police violence and brutality in Cape Town.

Our politicians must be held to account for condoning violence against the people of this country.

For comment about today’s action and the memorial on the 22 April, please contact:

Anele @ 0834472939 or alternatively 0795125677