Tshwane - Members of the South African Police Service will not standby and watch as protesting students engage in violence and destroy property, acting National Police Commissioner Lieutenant General Khomotso Phahlane warned on Friday.
He said police officers would — while exercising restraint as they control the crowds of protests — use proportionate force will be used as circumstances require.
“Teargas, stun grenades as well as rubber bullets fall under what is referred to as non-lethal weapons. We are on record for saying members of SAPS are urged to exercise maximum restraint, and they have done so. We also said when the situation requires, the proportional use of force as provided in our laws, will apply,” Phahlane told reporters in Pretoria.
“There is no way that police are going to be pelted with stones and all kinds objects, and when they apply minimum force, it’s considered to be brutality. There is no way that we could allow a situation where police are being stoned, properties being damaged and expect police to be spectators. They will respond to restore order.”
Phahlane said the “irresponsible behaviour of those who conducted themselves like hooligans” should not be condoned. He said protesting students who climbed on top of police vehicles displayed “disrespect of the highest order”.
The police chief revealed on Friday that a total of 831 people have been arrested in connection with the ongoing #FeesMustFall protests.
“The increase [in the number of arrests] can be attributed to the increase in the number of incidents of violent behaviour. Earlier, when the #FeesMustFall protests started, we didn’t have many incidents happening outside the premises of the institutions of higher learning,” said Phahlane.
“The trend [by protesting students] lately is to try and distract the police, move away from the institutions and go on the rampage outside, as it happened in Braamfontein [Johannesburg]. You would have noted the number of vehicles that were torched outside the [Witwatersrand] university.”
Phahlane said the students, of late, frequently protest during the night, leaving a trail of destruction by morning.
He emphasised that not all, of the 831 people arrested since February, are behind bars. Some got released on bail.
“That figure I presented to you is a national figure. We do not, at this stage, have the provincial breakdown. At the opportune moment we will do so.”
Several campuses around the country have experienced violence and unrest since higher education minister Blade Nzimande’s announcement on September 19, that universities should decide on their own fee increases for the 2017 academic year.
Nzimande placed a cap of eight percent on the increases and said they should be transparent and inflation-linked, although poor and the so-called “missing middle” would be exempt from fee increases.
African News Agency