During late 2016, in the midst of a new wave of student protests on the campuses of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, university authorities requested police support to manage the increasingly volatile environment.

This report documents some of the consequences, both direct and indirect, of the deployment of the police on campus. The report was prompted by concerns about indications of significant injuries from incidents involving apparently unjustified police use of force against protestors and others. It was also prompted by a further major concern, the lack of preparedness on the part of university, police and other services to be able to deal with the consequences of injuries and trauma.

The evidence on the use of force, subsequently gathered through interviews with directly affected individuals and other witnesses, combined with expert assessment of objective evidence and visual footage, confirmed the following violations of applicable human rights law:

• Unjustified use of force and the misuse of permissible weapons in response to peaceful assembly or against individuals who posed no threat to the police or others;
• Dispersal of peaceful protests with excessive force despite appeals to negotiate;
• The targeted or indiscriminate use of force against humanitarian workers and a place of safety; and
• Indiscriminate and unjustified use of force in the enforcement of the university-imposed curfew.

The injuries incurred from some of the instances of the misuse of force included: thermal burns to the face, loss of an eye, multiple rubber bullet injuries to single individuals, intentional close-range shooting with rubber bullets causing traumatic injuries and long-term health consequences from a fall while fleeing unlawful police shooting. At the same time these incidents were central to unlawful infringements of the right to peaceful assembly.

The report focuses additionally on the ‘double harm’ caused to the injured by the lack of preparedness on the part of the authorities in ensuring access to health care services with the capacity to respond to the level and type of injuries likely to arise from the large-scale deployment of force on campus. As a result, for the victims there were difficulties in both accessing and receiving essential medical attention, bridged only by the extensive efforts of volunteer first aiders and the personal commitment of staff at the existing health facility on campus. There was no plan put forward by either the police or the university to deal with the contingencies of campus securitisation and in a situation which the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) would term as an example of “other emergencies”.

As emphasised in the Marikana Commission of Inquiry’s evidence, conclusions and recommendations, in “an operation where there is a high likelihood of the use of force, the plan should include the provision of adequate and speedy first aid to those who are injured”.1 This report documents evidence of the failure to anticipate and plan accordingly, and with some of the resulting consequences, including:

• Obstruction of attempts by volunteers and others to reach, support and treat wounded students;
• Formal health care workers and volunteer first-aiders exposed to tear gas and stun grenades, as well as at risk from the indiscriminate firing of rubber bullets while they were attending to the injured, violating bedrock principles of medical neutrality;
• The deliberate targetting by police of a place of safety and treatment for injured students and others affected by police dispersal operations;
• A lack of coordination in the evacuation of injured people from where injured to more appropriate centres of care;
• Obstruction or delays in the arrival of ambulances due to securitisation aspects, including the imposition of the curfew, and a lack of planning to ensure safe access and evacuation routes for ambulances; and
• Temporary closure of the Campus Health and Wellness Centre due to an escalation of violence in its vicinity with consequent damage to the clinic’s windows, including from the indiscriminate firing of rubber bullets towards the clinic.

The report includes a range of recommendations, including accountability measures to ensure the non-repetition of the pattern of the various abuses documented; controls on the use of less lethal weapons; obligations to negotiate, de-escalate, and avoid the use of force; arbitrary detention; targeted use of force against humanitarian workers; indiscriminate and unjustified use of force to enforce university curfew measures, and obligations to ensure access to medical care in situations of conflict.

Report by the Socio-economic rights institute of South Africa