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The Right2Know Campaign strongly condemns the brutal manner in which police have dealt with protesting students at Wits University. We are also deeply saddened by the news that an innocent passerby was shot and killed by the police. We send our condolences to the family of the deceased and encourage them to sue the state. 

We call on the Police Minister, Bheki Cele and the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) to take swift action against the members of the police involved in the killing of an innocent man. We also call for action against the officers who were involved in shooting the protesting students at that institution. We understand that students were shot at with rubber bullets, but these are just as harmful as live ammunition. Students sustained severe injuries from being shot with rubber bullets.

The Marikana Panel of Experts, chaired by Judge David Ntshangase, was tasked with investigating the mandate and methods of public-order policing in the wake of the Farlam Commission.

R2K made submissions to the Panel in October 2017, calling for an urgent need to demilitarise policing in South Africa.

Judge Ntshangase’s Panel handed that report to the Minister of Police but it has never been released to the public. We now call on Minister Cele to release the Ntshangase report urgently.

There is a burning need to demilitarise policing in South Africa and we need to know if the Ntshangase report has delivered on the task.

Incidents of police brutality are escalating across the country. Protesters are being criminalised, shot at with stun grenades and rubber bullets and we cannot afford to remain silent as more protesters with legitimate grievances are at risk of severe injury and even losing their lives at the hands of the police.

We call on Wits University and the government to respect and protect the right to protest, and to ensure that action is taken against the inappropriate use of force by police and private security. It is imperative that the institution respects the right to protest and urgently address the students’ grievances in a more dignified manner to end this conflict.

The right to organise, protest and speak out is central to all community struggles for social justice. Instead of cracking down on dissent, the university management should focus on addressing the problems that have forced this protest action. 

We have the Right2Protest!

Ongazi Makazi! 

Issued by the Right2Know