AFTU welcomes the release of the report on public order policing which was commissioned as per recommendations of the Farlam Commission. In the wake of the death of Mthokosizi Ntumba and the violent handling of protests in the recent wave of free education protests, SAFTU called on the Minister of Police to release this report which was handed to him in 2018 by a panel of experts.

Though SAFTU noted that handling of protests with violence could be attributed to the lack of training in public order, it is not oblivious to the historical lessons that police violence, force and aggression necessarily spring out of the political establishment whose sense of legitimacy is being eroded and suppression of dissent is the only way through which it can impose its will on the people.

It is the pressure put by SAFTU and other interest groups that the Minister of police eventually released the report, which in the first place he was not supposed to be keep. The parliamentary committee on policing, which has been asleep at the wheel, has not been removed as per our call.

SAFTU will reply to the report after thoroughly studying its contents.

Issued by SAFTU