Human Rights Day event: Criminalising the poor

South Africa is in the grips of increasingly aggressive behaviour from our police and xenophobic attitudes from government officials that have led to the dehumanisation and unfair targeting of our country’s most vulnerable.

In the 2013/14 reporting period alone, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate registered complaints of 234 deaths of suspects while in police custody, 390 deaths as a result of police action and 4 000 instances of torture and assault.

In commemoration of Human Rights Day on 21 March, which remembers those who died at the hands of police in 1960, Lawyers for Human Rights hosted a discussion on recent trends of using criminal law to target the poor and marginalised.

Increasingly, authorities are treating informal traders, beggars and the homeless as a threat to public safety. The recent ke Malao police operation in Johannesburg has been one illustration of this practice. Operation ke Malao operates under the premise of combatting smash-and-grabs at intersections in Johannesburg. Unfortunately, while the operation is a commendable effort to curb crime, police have not learned the lessons of previous operations and it has instead led to physically removing people from the streets without just cause. The obvious result of this is the unfair prejudice against those trying to eke out a living in the face of overwhelming poverty. Previous “sweep” operations across South Africa and in many cities around the world show that they don’t effectively identify target groups with the result that everyone is considered a criminal and treated as such.  

Discussions examined these policies and decisions that have largely led to the exclusion of marginalised communities, limiting their ability to access public space and services. Speakers included LHR’s David Cote and Mametlwe Sebei as well as Nigel Branken from Transform and Jethro Gonese from the International Society for the Blind and Disabled.  Sokuluhle Moyo spoke of having her children removed by aggressive social workers as well as of her baby dying because clinics refused to treat her.   

Cote pointed out that these operations also unfairly targeted foreign nationals trying to work while formalising their stay in South Africa.

Gonese delivered a moving testimony of his experiences of having lived on SA’s streets for over 10 years. A teacher in Zimbabwe, Gonese has been consistently unable to find employment due to his impaired vision. With no alternative, he turned to begging to stave off starvation.  In the end, this led to his children being fed and educated.  He spoke of being repeatedly arrested and subjected to dehumanising and xenophobic slurs and violence from police.

“If I’m not given a chance to work then I have to resort to street begging for a living and from this meagre earning I can fend for my family and pay for food and schooling,” he explained.

It was while living on the streets in Hillbrow that he crossed paths with Branken who moved to the city centre with his family several years ago to help the poor and address inequality and greed. He discussed seeing metro police officers indiscriminately confiscating blankets and shoes from the homeless in winter to “make our parks safer”. He had tried to assist Moyo when her children were sick and refused assistance. 

“If we’re going to change the world we will have to break the barrier between race. Our country is so divided and we have to form friendships with those that are different,” he remarked.