Category Archives: Ficksburg

M&G: Who was Andries Tatane?

http://mg.co.za/article/2011-04-21-who-was-andries-tatane

Who was Andries Tatane?
KWANELE SOSIBO – Apr 21 2011

Street in Ficksburg’s Market Square where Andries Tatane died after police allegedly beat and shot him during a march to the Setsoto local municipality offices on Wednesday last week.

Phillip Selokoe, his former high school teacher, showed the Mail & Guardian an oval mark not far from the municipal building entrance where Tatane was apparently shot in the chest. Then he pointed out a smaller, spherical one about 10 metres further on where Tatane is said to have collapsed some minutes afterwards.

“I taught him English,” the heavy-set, bespectacled Selokoe said. “He was a very brilliant student, a pioneer by nature. He was very skilled in initiating things that would benefit others.

“He wanted to see all the ­people freed from unemployment and illiteracy.”

The chalk markings, will soon disappear but it seems that Tatane has been marked to become a martyr. In the wake of his death, comrades far and wide have hailed him as a new breed of freedom fighter — one who side-stepped party affiliations, rolled up his sleeves and made a difference to the lives of those around him. He was “a beautiful fighter”, whose “death shall not be in vain”, says a Facebook group set up in his honour, one of several created since his death.

Activist Andile Mngxitama, of the September National Imbizo that started the group, said Tatane was a “symbol of the new resistance”, who died because the government failed to deliver.

“It’s deceitful to blame his death on rogue policing,” Mngxitama said. “The militarisation of the police happens only to crush dissent. The police are carrying out a political mandate, so for us his death was not an accident.” Mngxitama said Tatane was born on February 22 1978 — so he died at the age of 33, just as Jesus did.

According to family members, the month of April always haunted Tatane. Two days before his own death his widow Malehlohonolo recalled, he was reliving the death of his mother about five years ago. He also lost his brother and father in the month of Easter.

But as many in Ficksburg’s Meqheleng township will tell you, it is better to remember Tatane by the way he lived his life rather than how he lost it. At the Tatane household — two modest brick buildings on a medium-size township stand — a scene of mourning of national importance unfolded on Tuesday as the family prepared for Saturday’s funeral.

Visit overshadowed by Cele

Outside the two-room building where Tatane lived with his wife and youngest son, Molefi, Archbishop Thabo Makhoba, accompanied by an entourage of South African Council of Churches clergymen, addressed the few present, expressed his condolences and encouraged the public to vote in the coming municipal elections.

If the men of the cloth were hoping for a press conference their visit was overshadowed by the media circus caused earlier by the arrival of police commissioner Bheki Cele.

Between the homestead’s buildings men minded a fire where two sheep were being cooked. Family members hurried about, serving an ever-present throng of mourners.

Molefi Nonyane, who can be seen holding the collapsed Tatane in some clips of the now infamous April 13 incident, said he met the deceased man in 2008 when he joined the Congress of the People.

“Tatane was already a member. He was very committed and his input in meetings was always vital, but he would never take up a position in the party. He believed in leading from within,” Nonyane said.

Although Nonyane rejoined the ANC some months later the pair remained close because they had much in common. “We were part of the lost generation,” said Nonyane, who was seated on the back of an open bakkie in the yard.

“We slipped through the fingers of academia, dabbled in business and did whatever to survive. As such we were like voices from behind the mountain,” he said. Ficksburg’s Imperani mountain loomed over the gathering.

Tatane’s self-funded community newspaper, Your Voice, was “a hit” in the township because it covered everything from street fashion to service delivery issues, Nonyane said. But the paper collapsed after Tatane ran out of money to sustain it.

“Wherever we were, we made a lot of impact,” Nonyane said. “Nobody really understood the vastness of his potential. He was the type of person that if you lost him in your group the group would crumble.”

Perhaps Nonyane is correct — the burning of two municipal buildings, including the library where Tatane conducted maths and science classes for the community, could signal a dip in the underdeveloped Meqheleng’s morale.

‘Ungovernable town’

On Facebook, a Ficksburg organiser calls for the town to be “rendered ungovernable”, suggesting that more upheavals could follow.

By several accounts the Meqheleng Concerned Citizens (MCC) group, formed after a march to the local municipal headquarters last month, is a volunteer-based group with no party affiliations.

The main gripe in the township is that some parts have been without water for three years. A construction failure in zone eight, a new development, has meant that sewage regularly spills out into the streets.

Nonyane said that at meetings of the MCC the teacher in Tatane would often come to the fore and he would ask the speaker leading questions to make sure no one got lost in a maze of political jargon.

A dropout from both the University of Cape Town, where he pursued media studies, and Wits (psychology), Tatane had no formal training as a teacher. He launched a multifaceted project, the I Can Learn Academy, which showed his jack-of-all-trades flair. Besides extramural classes it offered cleaning services, a car wash and a catering operation. Malehlohonolo Tatane said he was always pursuing community-based business opportunities.

Although many people would remember him as a fighter, she would remember him as a “chocolate and flowers guy” — and a doting dad who loved all the neighbourhood children, especially his own.

He died before his four-year-old son could pronounce “Petros” — his nickname from his courting days. Molefi voiced this as “Os”. As you descend from muddy Meqheleng to Fickburg’s sandstone CBD you can still sense the shock caused by Tatane’s death.

People of all races appear to be united in their dissatisfaction over service delivery. The roads are in a perpetual state of disrepair, they say, and the water supply has been unreliable.

The glass door to the municipal building has been damaged by rocks allegedly thrown during the protests that took Tatane’s life. If nothing else, that damage is a reminder that the MCC’s mandate is now written in blood.

Humble Cele comes cap in hand and apologises

Far from the blustering MC of the Deadly Force roadshow, the police commissioner who visited the late Andries Tatane’s home on Tuesday appeared sunken like a hunchback, with his cap between his knees.

As soon as Bheki Cele walked into the house where Tatane lived journalists jostled for space in the cramped bedroom where Tatane’s mother-in-law, Maria Mohlaping, his sister, Seipati Tatane, his aunt, Motshidisi Baajties, and uncle, Boy Tatane, were seated.

Tatane’s widow, Malehlohonolo, joined them later after returning from Bethlehem, where her husband’s body had been taken for a postmortem. Accompanied by Deputy Police Minister Makhotso Sotyu, who eased the language barrier, Cele admitted to being apprehensive about coming because he didn’t know how the family would receive him.

He apologised for his delay in commenting on Tatane’s death and said that he had been out of the country on the day of the incident. He had returned late last Friday, when he had issued a statement.

Cele offered his condolences and apologised for the Tatane’s death, describing the incident as “ugly, bad and painful”. He said he was pleased the Independent Complaints Directorate investigation had been speedy and was confident that the law would take its course.

He hoped Tatane’s death would be the last at the hands of his force — but to achieve that communities and the police had to build healthy relationships because it was tension that created volatile situations, he said.

The public eating of humble pie seemed to work. Tatane’s cousin said the family “bore no grudges against the police and they should not be afraid to carry out their duties as policemen”. Malehlohonolo Tatane said she felt the apology was “sincere”, although she later admitted that she would never trust a police officer again. Her older sister, Pinkie Mohlaping, a police officer in Ladybrand, said that being in the SAPS at this time was rather embarrassing.

As Cele and his entourage were about to leave, he was cornered by a group of journalists. He denied ever making a “shoot to kill” comment and challenged journalists to produce the clip that recorded him saying that.

Asked to comment on the state of police training in the country he said there were about 192 000 police officers, making it a large family where “some kids are bound to step out of line”. Efforts to improve training were continuing, he said.

Police violence in Ficksburg is not anything new

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=140782

Police violence in Ficksburg is not anything new

by Steven Friedman

REALITY in our society is that which appears on prime-time TV. The outrage that has followed the beating and killing of Ficksburg activist Andries Tatane is a reassuring reminder that human values are deeply rooted here. But, as justifiable as the anger is, much of it seems based on a misapprehension — that the sort of police action that killed Tatane is new. Actually, all that is new is that the police were unwise enough to attack him in front of cameras, which beamed their acts into living rooms around the country.

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Let them drink Valpré says Ficksburg mayor

http://www.timeslive.co.za/specialreports/elections2011/article1028697.ece/Let-them-drink-Valpr-eacute–says-Ficksburg-mayor

Let them drink Valpré says Ficksburg mayor

Residents’ anger boils over at Tatane court case
Apr 18, 2011 10:24 PM | By SIPHO MASONDO in Ficksburg

“People say there is no water in this town. What is this?” giggled Ficksburg’s mayor, Mbothoma Maduna, reaching into his office fridge for bottles of Valpré mineral water.

Maduna’s words came minutes before six policemen appeared in the Ficksburg Magistrate’s Court, a stone’s throw from his office, in connection with the death of Andries Tatane, killed during a protest against the town’s crippling water shortages.

On Wednesday, Tatane was allegedly shot twice at close range with rubber bullets, and beaten with batons, by a group of police officers in an attack shown nationwide on SABC TV news.

He and residents of the nearby township of Maqheleng had marched to the Setsoto municipal offices to demand a reliable supply of water and an immediate halt to the daily sewage spills into roads and gardens in the township.

A postmortem examination has found that Tatane died from gunshot wounds. The examiner’s report will be completed in a few weeks.

The Times has learned that a number of Independent Complaints Directorate officials were present at the examination by the Bloemfontein district surgeon.

ICD spokesman Moses Dlamini said the investigation into Tatane’s death might be finalised by the end of this week.

Investigators interviewed 14 policemen and arrested six of them.

The trial of Olebogeng Mphirime, Tehedi Moeketsie, Jonas Skosana, and Mphonyane Ntaje, who face charges of serious assault, and of Israel Moiloa and Mothusi Magano, charged with murder, was postponed to April 26, when they are expected to apply for bail.

Dlamini said more arrests might follow.

Tatane’s widow, Rose, and a relative of one of the six accused almost came to blows in court yesterday.

After the female relative entered the packed courtroom and demanded seats for the accused’s family, Rose Tatane shouted: “Shut up! Shut up! Do you not care that we have lost a person? The only thing you care about is sitting space for your people.

“Do you know that we could very well ask the mob [of protestors outside] to attack you when we leave this place?

“I wish I had a gun. I was going to kill them all [the accused] when they come inside!”

A court orderly asked the other woman to leave.

The six policemen came into the court wearing hats, hooded tops and woollen caps drawn over their eyes to prevent them being identified.

They were remanded in custody and will return to court on Tuesday next week for their bail hearing.

As they walked out of the court, Rose Tatane shouted: “These are not police, they are thugs!”

Outside the court, a group of about 500 protesters sang, whistled and waved placards, demanding that immediate action be taken against the alleged killers.

“No bail! No bail! No bail!” they chanted. Some of their placards read: “Protect us, don’t kill us”, “Rot in jail”, “Shoot to kill” and “Cele do your job”.

Others waved placards showing newspaper pictures of the police attacking Tatane, blood flowing from his chest, and collapsing.

“Somebody hold us, we will kill these dogs,” the crowd shouted, charging towards a group of grim-faced policemen inside the court’s yard, safely behind locked gates.

Facing the municipal building, they sang: “We don’t have water, sewage is stinking and it’s rotten. What have we done? Why are the police killing us? Why did they kill Tatane? He was fighting for our rights.”

Tsheliso Mpekoa, a local businessman who organised the march during which Tatane was killed, said the residents will not back down in their calls for Maduna, his senior managers and his councillors to resign.

He said that the municipality was riddled with corruption.

“We are meeting the co-operative governance MEC, Mamiki Qabathe, on Thursday. The municipality should be placed under administration. There should be an investigation and those who have to be dismissed should be dismissed.”

But Maduna insisted his administration was clean.

“It’s a perception and it’s not enough to make conclusions that we are failing to deal with corruption.

“If this office is made aware of such acts we will be able to act. If people see incomplete projects, they conclude it’s corruption.”

Dawood Adam, a senior official of the National Prosecuting Authority, told journalists that the director of the NPA, Menzi Simelane “sends his deepest condolences and calls for calm”. – Additional reporting by Chandre Prince

M&G: Protester’s death not an isolated case

http://mg.co.za/article/2011-04-15-protesters-death-not-an-isolated-case/

Protester’s death not an isolated case
ILHAM RAWOOT AND GLYNNIS UNDERHILL Apr 15 2011 07:31

The death of a protester in Setsoto, Ficksburg, on Wednesday, apparently at the hands of riot police, is not an isolated incident. The Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD), according to its 2010 annual report, investigated 1 769 cases of people dying in police custody or as a result of police action.

Video footage of the protester, identified as 33-year-old Andries Tatane, caused shockwaves when it was broadcast on SABC (South African Broadcasting Corporation) prime time news on Wednesday evening.

SABC chief executive Robin Nicholson, told the Mail & Guardian the broadcaster was currently assessing whether it had breached its own code of conduct by showing the footage.

Tatane was participating in a 4 000-strong march to the Setsoto municipal offices to demand a response to a memorandum on service delivery failures that the community had sent to the mayor, Mbothoma Maduna.

David Bruce, a senior researcher at the Centre for Violence and Reconciliation, said there was a high level of killings by police. “There isn’t a proper leadership engagement on the use of force,” he said.

“Leaders have an ambivalent attitude that this type of policing is needed to get the job done.

“One can expect more such incidents — until the police recognise the need to engage on standards that their members should uphold when using force.”

The ICD has taken over the investigation of Tatane’s death, although the South African Police Service is conducting an internal investigation.

A different story

Colonel Sam Makhele, the spokesperson for the Free State police commissioner, said that deaths in police hands were rare. “It’s unfortunate that someone lost his life, but it is an isolated incident,” he said. “We’ve never experienced such a thing in the province.”

But according to the ICD’s annual report, in the Free State seven suspects died while they were being arrested and 47 died as a result of police action or in police custody.

The footage flighted on SABC shows Tatane being beaten and kicked by armed policemen, and then collapsing. He died 20 minutes later, before an ambulance had arrived.

The Times Live website also reported that he was shot twice with live ammunition, but that is not shown on the video. The site claimed that he was attacked by police after he had asked why they were firing a water cannon at an elderly protester.

A post-mortem examination was held on Friday.

On Thursday Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa released a statement promising to investigate Tatane’s death. He also emphasised the need for protesters to abstain from violent and destructive behaviour.

“The ministry issued a public statement almost two months ago where we emphasised that strikes are democratic and constitutional rights of every citizen to express themselves, which government fully respects,” the statement reads. “However, what the Constitution does not prescribe are violent, barbaric, destruction of property and intolerant conducts, including provoking and touting [sic] police.”

Jackson Mthembu, the African National Congress’s national spokesperson, condemned the beating but attacked the SABC for screening the footage. “We are concerned that the public broadcaster showed such shocking and disturbing images on its prime time news slot with disregard to young viewers and other sensitive people who obviously would have been disturbed to various degrees by such images,” Mthembu said.

“We, therefore, also call upon the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa to investigate whether the public broadcaster has not overstepped its mandate in this regard.”

“The footage was carried with a warning and it reports what happened without prejudice,” said Nicholson. “It was in graphic detail and it was not sanitised. The question is: did it comply with our editorial policies? Our senior editors will advise us and the matter will be dealt with accordingly.”

Busines Day: Death in Ficksburg shows how we value life

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=140341

ITUMELENG MAHABANE: Death in Ficksburg shows how we value life
‘Between 70% and 80% live in the second economy and it is a place of humiliating and incapacitating poverty’
Published: 2011/04/15 06:52:20 AM

A MAN died this week. He died with his arms clutching his chest, trying to stop the blood spilling out of a gaping bullet hole.

His crime? In a country in which nearly 50% of the people live in poverty and where nearly 50% of black people are unemployed — most of them without the prospect of ever finding a job — he died because he wanted a better deal for his community.

In a country in which miscellaneous items worth hundreds of millions of rand are consumed each year by politicians, where people become instant multimillionaires supposedly providing public goods, goods that rarely materialise, this man died because he wanted his government to do its job.

There is no official finding. Early indications are that he was killed, possibly murdered, by the system that is meant to protect him. He was beaten viciously by a group of police officers. Then he was shot. Probably as he was lying on the ground, hurt and defenceless.

I wrote this column in the early hours of yesterday morning. By the time I sent it to this publication, in the middle of the morning, there had not yet been a statement of sympathy, of outrage, of a call for an investigation, from a member of the Cabinet.

A country with three Nobel Peace Prize laureates, a government ruled by a party once described as having the most genteel armed wing in the world, and this is what we have been reduced to?

The public, vicious deaths of citizens at the hands of the people entrusted with protecting our lives seemingly leaves us cold.

In Andries Tatane’s death we have shown, unequivocally, how we value life in a country with a constitution that is supposed to be the most progressive and enviable in the world.

This is not simply about police brutality. This is about national brutality. The police are simply a reflection of the society we are. It begins with the acceptance of the brutality of poverty and economic injustice.

Former President Thabo Mbeki described SA as a country with two economies, a first economy and a second economy.

Between 70% and 80% of South Africans live in that second economy and it is a place of humiliating and incapacitating poverty.

The overwhelming majority of our country survives on a household income of less than R2500 a month, most will spend between R500 and R1500 a month on accommodation because there is a shortage of pro-poor housing stock.

That is ignoring for a moment that even R1000 will simply get you a makeshift room. These households must then feed, clothe and send their children to school.

These poor people must survive in an economy in which pricing is determined by the need to satisfy the earning expectations of first-world citizens and their price-fixing and where their government has failed to provide functioning public infrastructure.

The poverty in which vast numbers of South Africans live can make places such as Alexandra seem like places of privilege.

We have people who have been on housing lists for more than a decade, many of them the supposed recipients of supposed houses built by people who live it up at bling parties, hobnobbing with the political and business elites of the first world.

Meanwhile, provinces are rushing to outlaw shack settlements.

We seek instead to criminalise the poor for being poor.

They must know their place and sit in the dust bowls that apartheid shipped them out to until the rest of us have eaten.

We cannot have them scarring the vistas of our first economy.

The maladministration and poor governance is tolerated, rewarded even.

The unequivocal message from the reaction to the death of Tatane in Ficksburg is that not only do we do not value the lives of our people, the government has a minimal sense of accountability to its citizens. If it does not care about their lives then how can it possibly care about its duty to them?

This is not simply about poor governance and delivery, it is about economic and social justice. There is something repugnant, for instance, about the ease with which we demonise workers in our battle against inflation, when the problem is multifaceted.

In a country of bread-price fixers, officials who steal from children and pensioners, and crass chauvinistic materialists, the ease with which the working class has become the enemy of the country is a reflection of the society we have become

We can comfort ourselves and tell ourselves that we have a democracy and a constitution and that there will be no violent uprisings in this country.

Yet democracy is not a piece of paper. It functions only if people believe they have a real choice, and many do not think they do.

In that context, the combination of extraordinary inequality, material excess, poor political accountability and responsiveness, and debilitating, brutalising corruption will eventually spread the flames engulfing poor, black SA into our comfortable little first world.

We are becoming tribes at war. We need to find our way back to prioritising an inclusive and just society.