Abstract
Unarguably, the South African Police during the apartheid era was characterised by brutality and state repression, including the political executions of several South African citizens who dared oppose the apartheid regime. The post-apartheid era has also witnessed deaths of citizens at the hands of the police during demonstrations, demanding better service delivery, higher wages, improved working conditions, and an end to marginalisation and poverty. The author presents some cases of police human rights violations concerning policing citizen’s protests. This is a qualitative study, relying on extensive literature review by previous researchers. The findings of this study are: The South Africa Police Service continues to violate citizen's right to protest, which is enshrined in the Republic of South Africa’s constitution under chapter 2 “Bill of Rights” and other international legal jurisprudence. The South African police have failed to perform their duties professionally and effectively when it comes to policing protests. Crown management remains an elusive issue both during the apartheid and post-apartheid eras. The author recommends a demilitarization of the police consistent with the South African government policy recommendation, found in the National Development Plan 2030.
Highlights
South African citizens have witnessed twenty-six years of democracy; during this time, the role of the South African Police Service has become very important and has been subject to closer scrutiny by citizens
Some critiques have argued that the SAPS public order units were originally built on the Belgian Police model, which encourages confrontation, and during the world cup in South Africa, we observed a shift towards the French policing model during the 2010 FIFA World Cup [1, 2]
That the true meaning of Human Rights has not been completely understood by the South African Police Service and organisers of protests
Summary
South African citizens have witnessed twenty-six years of democracy; during this time, the role of the South African Police Service has become very important and has been subject to closer scrutiny by citizens. One can safely argue that the unlawful violence, occurring today in South Africa, is not new and is not very different from the police violence, inherited from the apartheid era It can be argued, that the true meaning of Human Rights has not been completely understood by the South African Police Service and organisers of protests. In the second part of the article, the researcher examines various incidents, in which the South African Police Service has violated the fundamental human rights of citizens during protests. The researcher argues that no amount of justification would excuse the misdeeds of a police officer who had sworn under his/her oath of office to protect and serve citizens of South Africa, as such cases might be turned around after unfortunate incidents to justify such killings.
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