I would like to differ with the views expressed by Cde Gugu on this matter, both at the level of substantive issues raised, but also at the manner in which she has decided to express her views (anger) on the "shoot-to-kill" sentiments of the government security cluster officials, and President Zuma.
Uncomradely disagreement I am not sure whether the views expressed by Cde Gugu in this piece are hers or those of the YCL-SA, as signed at the bottom. I am saying this because I find her manner of expression very strange to the culture of engagement within our revolutionary movement. Firstly, I find her opening statement inherently questioning our government's commitment to the course of NDR, which is that of "liberating black people in general, and Africans in particular", inter alia. Cde Gugu says, in her own words, "When South Africans voted in 1994, they had hoped that our government will, by default, be more sympathetic to the course of emancipation of black people....". The insinuation that our people only continue to vote for the ANC because there are no viable options is misleading and therefore cannot be left unchallenged. Quoting from Cde Gugu's article in verbatim "until today, the masses still loyally vote for the liberation movement as options are non-existent in real terms in South Africa". The article goes further to say "the very same government now unilaterally decides to turn a blind eye on the conditions that ail the poor.....". Now, I find these kinds of utterance indeed very strange to be associated with a comrade of her stature, especially the Spokesperson of the YCL-SA. If I personally did not know Cde Gugu as the Spokesperson of YCL-SA, I would have thought that the article was authored by an angry member of Africanist organization, BCM or even the anarchic ultra-leftists who continue to mobilize our people in the township against our very own government. I do not find anything wrong with comrades being critical about some of the statements uttered by our comrades in government, and in fact I think that becomes our revolutionary duty at all times, but the manner of engagement and the tone of our expressions should be constructive and in line with our the culture of our Congress Movement. Substantive argument against the amendment of Section 49 I would want to move from the premise that crime rate in our country has reached unacceptable levels, that our people are increasingly feeling insecure, and that this has become a common campaigning tool for all the opposition parties in our country. Opposition parties are opportunistically opposed to this call because they would not want to see crime reduced drastically in our country, as that will disarm them during the election period and increase the electorate confidence in the ANC. There are many contributory factors towards this unacceptably high crime rate in our country, which will include, amongst other things: unemployment, poverty, corruption within crime prevention state apparatus, loopholes within our justice system towards criminals, liberal approach of western-oriented human rights, etc. The recent statistics on crime rate in our country suggest that our government should declare a state of emergency on criminal activities. Something must be urgently done to address this disturbing state of affairs. We therefore cannot begin to suggest that there is one-size-fits-all approach to fighting crime in our country. Our government must therefore adopt a multi-pronged approach to addressing this situation. Amongst mechanisms to be adopted will therefore include tightening our criminal justice system to ensure that convicted criminals don't get away with light sentences; that we address we continue with our fight against poverty and unemployment; that we fight fire-with-fire against criminals, etc. We cannot ridicule the call made by President Zuma and other security cluster government officials when they suggest that our crime prevention officials must utilize maximum power to protect their lives and those of ordinary citizens when confronted with compelling situations. It is therefore wrong to simply reduce this argument to police harassment of hawkers, the shooting of an innocent unarmed kid by private security guards, harassment of prostitutes, etc. I don't think either President Zuma or any of other government official has made such a ridiculous call for police officers just to shoot randomly. The call is fundamentally against violent crime, and those incidents cannot be classified as such. And I think Cde Gugu concurs with this call when she concludes by saying "A well-trained officer of the law will know exactly when to shoot", but you need the law to protect such well-trained officers in such cases. And perhaps Cde Gugu should in future not sign her personal views on her official capacity, because this might associate them with those of the YCL-SA. Steve Mamphekgo On individual capacity ________________________________ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Tuis Dumisani Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 9:10 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [YCLSA Discussion] Re: Shoot to kill-death sentence without trial Amandla, I'm in support of the process, let's engage our Comrades in government but also engage in other forms of showing that we are not in support of the amendment of section 49 that will promote police brutality. Dumisani Tuis- Court Manager Department of Justice & Constitutional Development- Victoria West Office Tel: +2753-6210007 Fax: 0865070204 Cell: +27736430439 "The possibility that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just"- Abraham Lincoln ________________________________ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Gugu Ndima Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 8:57 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [YCLSA Discussion] Shoot to kill-death sentence without trial Shoot to kill-death sentence without trial Having grown up in a township where young boys and girls yearned for role models to give them direction; a place where inadequacies of education illustrated themselves in our communities more especially in January where matriculants now wonder what's next for them, has made me understand the causations of crime within our society. A place where hope of alleviating poverty, is still a myth. Unfortunately choices and options that avail themselves to people that are subjected to such social ills have horrendous pathways that tend to end one's life or lead them to the cold corridors of South African prisons. For most women the alternatives are inclusive of options such as prostitution, shop-lifting and gambling in township games known as "U-Mchina" or cards. Some have found minimal salvation in grant money and subject themselves to retail exploitation in stores such as Shoprite which have found a magnificent and loyal market in our townships despite their disgusting service to our people. These are some of the social ills that still characterise urban poverty; poverty that is mostly over looked, due to the illusion that poverty is minimal in areas of urbanisation. Unfortunately such areas are those that are more susceptible to it (poverty) and it's increasing as a result of the perpetual divisions between the rich and the poor. These divisions have become more ailing due to the fact that they are now class divisions between the black elite and the poor black majority. When South Africans went to the polling stations for the first democratic elections in 1994, they voted with the hope that the transformation of government would yield economic and political relief and moreover bring the promise land to the masses in the form of a better life. Most saw this as a new beginning for them and the newly elected government would by default be a government that would be more sympathetic and understanding towards the conditions that still terrorise the black majority of this country; until today, the masses still loyally vote for the liberation movement as options are non-existent in real terms in South Africa. It becomes a sad case when the very same government now unilaterally decides to set a blind eye on the conditions that ail the poor and opt to use military methods to deal with problems in our society. When I first heard the utterance "shoot to kill" by Commissioner Bheki Cele, I could not help but question the logic or obscure ideological connotation from which this mentality stems from. This route or manner of approach for addressing crime manifests lawlessness and violence amongst the people. It potentially has the element of destruction in society as this will encourage retaliation or retribution from those that will fight against the abuse of this "shoot to kill" tactic by the police force. In the place of respect, fear will emerge from the members of our society. It's blatantly clear that such statements are pre-mature and cannot be condoned. The justification that was mumbled by the Police ministry brigade for this "shoot to kill" tactic was that it's the best form of method to deal with thugs that choose to execute cops in a gun-battle. Now unfortunately you cannot implement such a law in South Africa due the short-comings of the whole SAPS. For one corruption in the SAPS is horrifically the major characteristics of the force, most people that join the force tend to buy their way in through bribery. Secondly skills are serious concern within the SAPS and sometimes it's embarrassing that you find police officers that cannot even properly draft an affidavit let alone an official statement. Thirdly we have officers that tend to think by virtue of their uniform they are above the law. The abuse hawkers, commuters in roadblocks, they take bribes as opposed to dealing with cases. They abuse civilians in holding cells, the SAPS has been implicated in numerous cases where prostitutes were held in holding cells and raped by men in blue; deaths under police custody have increased. Lest we forget that organised crime cases tend to have the men in blue implicated highly. Now we ask where does the shoot to kill fit in from the above, well for any police officer that could potentially be implicated in the above can easily utilise the "shoot to kill" tact to get rid of evidence. The Independent Complaints Directorate has recently complaint that it has limited powers to deal with complaints bought against police officers in our country. We can't have a police force that will be a law unto themselves. Yes there is a serious crime issue but unfortunately we cannot look at crime unilaterally without simultaneously addressing the causations. The SAPS has no clear transformation policy in place and racism is still an issue. We have a serious influx of foreigners for example, but that is no lee-way for police officers to abuse them as they please and this is exactly what is happening around the country; at the rate the Police ministry is going with the whole shoot to kill debacle, you would swear that there is a new award for the number of body bags that police officers bring in. The amendment of section 49 will not resolve anything instead it will create animosity between civilians and police officers. Let's first achieve an environment that will curb young people from resorting to violent crimes. Some of the men that have resorted to such criminal activities, are men that strongly defended the revolution during trying times in the early nineties unfortunately the government has never had a plan in place to absorb them. They sacrificed their education in order to see political emancipation and now they have become statistics within our prisons or are buried by the bullet of the SAPS. This whole debacle reminds me of a sad story in the township where a Fidelity guard was parked outside a petrol station, due to the inadequate recreational activities that are minimal in the township, young children play in the street. A young girl mistakenly rolled her tennis ball under the van as she ran to go get it quickly, she was greeted with a rain of bullets and until today the family never got compensation for that. Now this is just Fidelity, a private security company, what more if law enforcers have been given a blank cheque to murder people equally just like criminals. A well-trained officer of the law will know exactly when to shoot and does not need the law to be amended for that. We have worked hard to eradicate injustice in our country and the process of transforming the law is far from over. Introducing a new form of death sentence will just take us back to the dark years of apartheid, the difference will now be that this will be sanctioned by our very own people. Phansi with the amendment of Section 49 phansi!! I remain Gugu Ndima National spokesperson (YCLSA) 076 783 1516 Disclaimer:<br><br> This message may contain confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail by mistake and delete this e-mail from your system. E-mail transmission cannot be guaranteed to be secured or error-free as information could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late or incomplete, or contain viruses. The sender therefore does not accept liability for any errors or omissions in the content of this message, which arise as a result of e-mail transmission. The Gauteng Provincial Government does not take responsibility for Gauteng Provincial Government users' personal views. 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