City buys Casspirs for riot control

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File photo

Published Jun 28, 2017

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The eThekwini Municipality has procured four Casspirs from state-owned arms manufacturer Denel to deal with riot situations across the city.

The awarding of the contract was contained in a report tabled before the city’s executive council on Tuesday. The report presented all tender awards made by the city in May.

An entry shows the city will be spending R19.9 million for the purchase of the armoured vehicles. The municipality’s chief financial officer, Krish Kumar, told The Mercury the Casspirs will help the city deal more effectively with rioting. 

“It is hard for our vehicles now to get into those (riot) situations,” said Kumar.

He said the city had not yet taken delivery of the vehicles and they were expected later this year.

DA councillor Heinz de Boer asked for a full report on what the Casspirs will be used for, saying 
the city owed it to the residents to let them know. “There might be a role I do not know. We just need to know what it is.” 

De Boer told the meeting there were many more needs within the Metro Police Department and these included more staff, bulletproof vests, dogs and dog handlers. 

“Are we running a military here?” he asked.

KZN Violence Monitor Mary de Haas said she was “horrified” at this “disgraceful” decision. 

“What sort of riots are they talking about, for Pete’s sake; it’s like apartheid. I don’t understand why the city needs casspirs.”

De Haas said that instead the municipality management should be asking why there are so many protests and work on the delivery of services rather than “wasting money” and sending a bad message. 

“It’s the police’s job to deal with protests; that’s why they have public order police. This is absolutely ridiculous,” she said. 

Lizette Lancaster, manager of the crime and justice hub at the Institute for Security Studies, said part of the city’s mandate was bylaw enforcement and metro police often had to deal with unrest, particularly protests, sometimes 
on their own. 

In order to do this they needed to source equipment but the choice of Casspirs was questionable. 

“Vehicles such as Casspirs have a very bad connotation in this country, they reminds us of the old mellow yellow Casspirs of the apartheid days. 

“These types of vehicles lend themselves to the public perception that municipalities are militarising themselves which will alienate people and make them lose confidence in their municipality,” said Lancaster. 

University of Johannesburg 
Prof Jane Duncan agreed, saying Casspirs are military vehicles which suggest that the principles 
of warfare are being applied to protest policing, which is not appropriate as a form of policing of first resort. 

“I would be interested to know the evidence base for the decision. Research had shown that 80% of community protests are peaceful, 10% disruptive and only 10% become violent. Time and again 
the police have overstated the extent of violent protests to justify the 
need for more resources, equipment and harsher policing. 

“I’d be interested to know what case they’ve made for these acquisitions,” she said.

The Mercury

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