Death of protestor highlights key issues

The death of a teenager, allegedly shot by police during a protest against poor state service delivery, has highlighted growing impatience among marginalised groups in South Africa and the willingness of security forces to use apartheid-era methods. The Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD), a statutory body that investigates police corruption, misconduct and criminality, confirmed on Wednesday that it had launched an inquiry into police conduct during the protest on Monday. Police said thousands of young protestors, angered by unemployment and underdevelopment in their communities, blocked a major highway running through the town of Harrismith in the central province of Free State. Officials allege the protest turned into a riot, forcing officers to disperse the crowd by firing rubber bullets. However, news reports indicated that some protestors were injured by live shotgun rounds. The subsequent death in hospital of one of the young protestors wounded during the incident, 17-year-old Teboho Mkhonza, has sparked widespread condemnation of police action on the day. "We are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of the youth who allegedly died as a result of police action ... He was allegedly shot by police during a riot in Harrismith. We will follow our investigative processes and, upon completion of the investigation, the case docket will be forwarded to the director of public prosecution for a decision [on whether police officials will be criminally charged]," ICD spokesman Steve Mabona told IRIN. The executive director of the Institute for Democracy in South Africa, Paul Graham, described the police response to the protestors as "really old-style behaviour ... it takes us back to the time when life was less important than property". "It's really beyond the pale that police should revert to, basically, strong-arm tactics to deal with a protest - even if that protest is illegal and misguided, it suggests a choice in favour of certain parts of society against the poor, and that's not the type of society we're trying to create," Graham noted. He said it was difficult to understand why "they could not look at alternatives other than shooting at" protestors. "It's true that it [the protest on the main N3 toll road] probably made life difficult for people wanting to travel from Durban to Johannesburg and slowed down the economy, but nevertheless, we have to take people's lives seriously, especially young people. A protest like that does not just start from scratch ... are the police and local authorities so out of touch with the community that they did not know it was coming?" Graham asked. The protest highlighted growing impatience with the slow pace of government's delivery of basic services and job creation programmes. "Just because the ANC [African National Congress] got 70 percent of the vote [during the April general election] does not mean people are not critical of their performance. I think the protest ... is just a concrete manifestation of the feelings of many communities: that things are not moving as fast as they could," said Graham. "Voting for people just increases the expectation that they will deliver."