Press statement: LHR alarmed at offensive remarks by Deputy Police Minister Sotyu during memorial address

Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) is alarmed at the use of derogatory and offensive remarks made by Deputy Police Minister Makhotso Sotyu during a memorial service for slain police officers on Tuesday, 4 August 2015.

The tragic death of SAPS officials is indeed cause for alarm and we commend the stance in strengthening efforts to ensure their safety. The fact that 54 officials have been killed since January is both deeply sad and troubling.

We are, however, concerned at the dangerous language used by Sotyu during her keynote address at the memorial of the late constables NJ Buthelezi, LI Seolwane and SAC Hlabisa, when she stated: “our strategic implementation plan must always intend to treat heinous criminals as outcasts, who must neither have place in the society nor peace in their cells! They must be treated as cockroaches!”

In the same address, Minister Sotyu states “prejudice and stereotyping any kind of violence will not serve any good purpose; it will rather escalate the problem!” It is curious, then, that she proceeded to deliver prejudicial and profoundly offensive stereotypes.

The comments are not only insulting. They demonstrate an alarming lack of awareness of the values set out in the Bill of Rights and the legislation regulating the treatment of detainees. Within the Bill of Rights is the right of everyone to security of the person which includes the right “not to be treated or punished in a cruel, inhumane or degrading way”. It also provides that detainees are assured the right to be held in conditions of detentions that are consistent with human dignity.

SAPS regulations and the Correctional Services Act, acknowledging that detained people are wholly dependent on the state, make it clear that detainees – whether charged, convicted or sentenced – have the right to a certain dignified standard of treatment.
This legislation also makes it clear that offenders do, in fact, “have a place in society” and it is the purpose of our correctional facilities to promote “social responsibility and human development”.

Minister Sotyu’s statements can only be understood to have intended to insult, cause grave harm and advocate hatred. We thus call on her to retract clarify or retract her remarks and apologise.

Being in a position of authority, Minister Sotyu has a duty to lead by example and uphold the laws of the country.