Cops attack sleeping homeless

by | Mar 14, 2014 | Featured 1

WITS students were left stunned as they watched members of the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) use electro-shock weapons and batons against sleeping homeless people in Braamfontein.

A Wits Vuvuzela reporter along with several students were in a nearby residence when they witnessed the attack outside the Braamfontein Methodist Church on Rissik street on March 6.

At approximately 11pm three JMPD vehicles, a large truck, a van and a car, pulled up to the sidewalk to chase away the homeless people sleeping in the pouring rain.
The scene was chaotic as the police officers began shouting and yelling at the homeless to leave.

The sounds of police batons swinging through the air as they struck bodies were heard above the screams and cries of the homeless during the late-night onslaught.

HEAR ME OUT: A homeless man, who wanted to be called 'Sam because of fear of reprisals, speaks openly about his violent encounters with the police. Photo: Kudzai Mazvarirwofa

HEAR ME OUT: A homeless man, who wanted to be called ‘Sam because of fear of reprisals, speaks openly about his violent encounters with the police. Photo: Kudzai Mazvarirwofa

A few of the police where huddled around one of the homeless who appeared to be lying on the ground. One of the police officers bent over the homeless person and the light from an electric charge split the darkness as the crackling of a taser could be heard.
The homeless people ran away, leaving their meagre belongings behind.

JMPD spokesperson responds: “We don’t want them there making the place dirty” 

Wits Vuvuzela contacted JMPD spokesperson Superintendent Edna Mamonyane who denied the accusations that police had harassed the homeless.
“We are not harassing anybody!

We clean up the streets and we don’t want them there making the place dirty and urinating everywhere. There are homes around, they must go there,” Mamonyane said.
When told that several Witsies had witnessed the attack on the homeless she denied their accounts, calling the students “children”.
“Really? Children? Who do you believe? Who can trust what children say? We are too busy focusing on other important things like flooding in the streets and traffic. Nobody has time to harass them [the homeless],” Mamonyane said.

[pullquote align=”right”]“If you fall or they catch you, they beat you sometimes with sjamboks.”[/pullquote]

Several students who live at a nearby residence and witnessed the March 6 attack told Wits Vuvuzela that it was not an isolated incident.

“The police come often and they chase around these poor homeless people. They don’t bother anybody, they just sit there and mind their own business,” said a second-year Wits student.
One of the homeless people, who only gave his name as “Sam”, said JMPD often came to the Braamfontein church to chase them away.

“Ja, the Metro come here, sometimes at three or four in the morning, and they chase us away. We’ll be sleeping and you just hear ‘Hey, hambani, hambani!’ [leave, leave!],” Sam said.
“If you fall or they catch you, they beat you sometimes with sjamboks.”
A female second-year University of Johannesburg student said the homeless who stayed at the church were also sometimes helpful.

“I saw a girl screaming in the back [of the residence] and heard the homeless people shouting ‘mbambe!’ [catch him!]. When I looked out of the window, I saw the homeless guys running after the thief who had just attempted to rob one of the students that lives around here.”

Even identity documents are confiscated

Sam claimed that when JMPD came to expel the homeless, they sometimes confiscate their documents and belongings.

“They just take everything, even my trolley, which I use to collect things to recycle,” he said.
Sam said the JMPD had also taken identity documents from the homeless, making it difficult for them to find work or prove they are authorised to stay in South Africa.
“They just take everything and go. Even when I try to tell them that my ID document is in there, they don’t care,” Sam said.
Another homeless man, “Mike”, told Wits Vuvuzela that he had no other place to go and would welcome information on housing if it was available.
“No one likes to live like this,” Mike said.
The homeless stay close to the church in Braamfontein because they are given food and clothing by the parishioners as well as students from the Wits Medical School. Independent Police Investigative Directorate spokesperson Moses Dhlamini said he was not aware of the accusations against JMPD.
“These people must come to our offices to lodge a complaint and we will look into it,” he said.

WITS JUSTICE PROJECTS RESPONDS 

MAP: The attacks took place outside the Braamfontein Methodist Church in Rissik Street.

 

 

 

 

 

A confiscation of livelihood

by | Oct 1, 2012 | Featured 1

Luyanda Majija’s first feature for Wits Vuvuzela tells the story of Johannesburg hawkers’ struggle to make a living against the JMPD’s duty to enforce the law.

Police patrol the streets of Johannesburg. Pic: Marcello Casal Jr/ABr

Nkhangweleni Nemakonde’s day started off the way it usually did. He woke up at 3am, and instead of heading to his stall to start working at 4.50am, he went straight to the market to stock up on mangoes because he had run out unexpectedly.

He arrived from the market with 30 boxes of mangoes, each worth R48, and put them next to his stall.

An hour later he left the stall under the watchful eye of his assistant to run a few errands. On his return, in place of his fresh mangoes was a ticket from the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD).

This ticket said that he was in violation of a Johannesburg municipality by-law and was to pay R1000 to claim his stock from the JMPD compound.

The mangoes were worth more than the fine, he organised money and went to pick up them up. But they seemed to have disappeared.

 

“JMPD officers can confiscate hawkers’ stock for which they issue tickets used to collect their goods from the impound”

 

The Johannesburg municipality has devised several by-laws concerning informal traders (hawkers) which regulate such factors as designated trading areas as well as environmental health and safety.

In terms of designated trading areas, hawkers are either allocated standardised stalls provided by the city or designated blocks marked by painted lines. Hawkers are also provided with trading permits as proof of their legality.

The JMPD has a unit whose mandate is to enforce the city’s informal trading by-laws against hawkers trading illegally. The offences range from designated area violations to the trading of counterfeit goods (punishable by imprisonment). In the event that any of these laws are violated, JMPD officers can confiscate hawkers’ stock for which they issue tickets used to collect their goods from the impound.

 

“JMPD carries out raids at 6am, 11am and 2pm every day”

 

JMPD Superintendent Zed Mangaliso explained that the situation was more complex than just confiscations of hawkers’ goods however. “The main problem is that there are parts of town designated for hawkers but there are just too many people wanting to sell in the same parts of town and there are not enough designated spots,” said Mangaliso said.

He stressed that the laws were meant to deal with the congestion of hawkers on the pavements in the inner city not to harass them.

An aerial view of Johannesburg. Pic: Lars Haefner

According to Mangaliso the JMPD carries out raids at 6am, 11am and 2pm every day and the fines issued are determined by the municipality: R1060 for perishables and R2115 for non-perishables.

“We are merely doing our jobs”, said Mangaliso.

 

“They believe metro police operate under their own rule of law”

 

JMPD claim to be doing their “job” however hawkers see things differently. That may be the law but they believe metro police operate under their own rule of law.

Nemakonde has a stall and a permit that he received in 2005 yet his mangoes worth close to R2000 were confiscated and never recovered. He believes they were stolen by JMPD officers.

“They took my mangoes home to feed their children while I am struggling to feed mine.”

After Nemakonde made several complaints, he was advised by JMPD administration to lay a complaint with the police. “But all they [police] told me was that I couldn’t open a case against other police.”

“So I lost about R2000 that day, money I don’t have.”

At 2pm on one Friday a JMPD raid was set to happen. A convoy of four JMPD cars carrying a team of about 15 officers left for the Park station area with a mandate to confiscate the perishable stock of hawkers trading illegally.

As the first car, a small Ford, entered the area traders looked around them, alert with anticipation. In what seemed like a few seconds, this turned into panic as the two Quantum mini buses, followed by the truck, entered the target area. As soon as the officers jumped out of the cars, hawkers knew seemed to know exactly what to do.

They grabbed whatever they could and ran to try hiding it. One hawker who sold his tomatoes and onions from a trolley just pushed his trolley as he ran. In all the chaos, he was unable to outrun the two officers who grabbed his trolley and lifted it onto the truck effortlessly.

He like several others, was not issued a receipt. The few that were did not bother taking them saying there was no point of paying R1060 to get back stock worth less than that amount and by the time they gather the amount their fruit would have perished in the JMPD storage rooms.

Watch a video showing a JMPD raid:

 

The JMPD have been accused of confiscating hawkers’ goods without issuing receipts or their goods “disappearing” from storage. In May this year The New Age reported that the South African National Trader’s Retail Alliance (Santra) was applying to the High Court for an interdict preventing JMPD officers from confiscating hawkers’ goods.  This followed allegations of theft by the JMPD. There were incidents where no receipts were issued to hawkers resulting in them not recovering their goods.

 

Moratorium on confiscations – Law Review Project

 

Tebogo Sewapa, a legal researcher from the NGO involved in the court application, Law Review Project, said JMPD raids were a violation of human rights. Sewapa and his team who are representing Nemakonde and others have requested a moratorium on these confiscations.

One of the reasons for this moratorium was what they said was an inhumane nature of punishment leading to “the poor losing their only possessions”.

They also mention that cases where hawkers’ goods are never recovered serve as evidence of corruption in the JMPD. In addition, the cost of getting back their confiscated goods is often higher than the value of the goods taken making the process theft from the hawkers by the city.

Legally, they said the raiding process was unconstitutional for hawkers mainly because when their goods are essentially being punished before they can defend themselves in a court of law.

“We want the High Court to declare that the by-law that gives metro police rights to confiscate traders’ goods without following the due process of the law, that by-law has to be declared to be not in line with the constitution,” Sewapa said.

 

Hawkers in Pretoria

 

It is not just hawkers working in Johannesburg experiencing such challenges.

News24 reported that hundreds of hawkers in Pretoria went up in arms in during several protests in August this year alleging that they were harassed by the metropolitan police there.

An article in The New Age about the same protest cited the protesting hawkers’ spokesperson saying officers were harassing them by confiscating their wares and trading permits without valid reasons.

To explain the confiscation process, Mangaliso stated that perishable goods stored at the JMPD compound were kept for a maximum of three days and if they were unclaimed at the R1060 fee they were donated to NGOs. He said this might be why some hawkers’ goods might be removed from the compound before they claim them hence the allegations of “disappeared” goods.

 

“It hurts because I am not breaking the law”

 

While Sewapa and his colleagues continue in talks with the municipality, the raids continue three times a day – every day affecting the lives of hawkers like Nemakonde and their families.

“The JMPD really harasses us. It hurts because I am not breaking the law I have a permit to trade but they still take my stock,” said Nemakonde while organising his fruit.

“I don’t make a lot of money to begin with, I live from hand to mouth … when they take our stock and leave us with high fines it doesn’t make sense.”

Despite the challenges he has faced with the JMPD, he still has the dedication of the 21year old he was when he started selling fruit at this very spot on Bree Street in 1988. His motivation is his three children, wife, sister and mother who all depend on the fruit that he sells.

He says he has not once made demands on the government for handouts – all he wants is justice served for him and others like him – people making an honest living.


See the map below for the location of Bree Street in Johannesburg:

View Larger Map

Nemakonde will continue to start his days when he wakes up at 3am, arriving at his stall at 4:50am to start selling to his earliest customers.

He only packs up to go home at 7:30pm all the while hoping he will not be a victim of any of the three raids to take place each day  – and that he would have sold almost all if not his entire stock.

 

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