Beauregard Tromp
and Sapa
FICKSBURG: Residents in Meqheleng, a township bordering Ficksburg, yesterday burnt a municipal building and a public works depot as they vented their rage at the death of Meleke Andries Tatane during a police assault on Wednesday.
Angry youths armed with petrol bombs and rocks barricaded roads, with residents having to escort journalists inside the township.
Tatane, a father of two, husband to Rose Tatane and community activist, died from injuries sustained during protests in the Free State town.
“I saw him lying there on a stretcher. He looked stiff, like somebody who died a long time ago. My son, Molefe, asked for his father. I told him his father was with the people,” said Rose.
“I saw the police beating him. I saw him standing him up. I saw him falling. The last I saw was when the ambulance took him away,” she said, describing watching the footage on SABC news on Wednesday evening
Residents here say they have been complaining about water and other services for four years now. A protest march on March 23 was followed by a second one on Wednesday when the incident occurred.
Meqheleng Concerned Community leader Molefe Manyane said police had started firing rubber bullets at the crowd as they were about to disperse, sending people fleeing in all directions for cover.
“When Tatane saw the water cannon spraying the old people he came back, took off his T-shirt and said: ‘Why don’t you shoot me?’”
Video footage shows Manyane and another resident holding Tatane up as he clutched his bleeding chest. As they remonstrated with police, Tatane collapsed behind them. Manyane is then seen shaking the lifeless body of Tatane.
The video footage has been handed over to a team of investigators from the Independent Complaints Directorate that is investigating the incident.
Residents say their biggest gripe is the lack of access to clean water.
After the Cape Times visited the modest two-bedroom home shared by Tatane, his wife was escorted by family to take part in a cleansing ceremony at the place where her husband died.
As the priest started his prayer, numerous other voices joined in and Rose collapsed to the ground.
Free State police spokesman Colonel Sam Makhele said reinforcements had been sent to the town and police were maintaining a high presence in the town and at the local court.
Yesterday Free State MEC for police, roads and transport Thabo Manyoni called for calm in the border town.
Meanwhile, ICD spokesman, Moses Dlamini said a team “will investigate and take statements from witnesses and police ... then an identity parade will be carried out.”
Firearms would be sent for ballistics testing.
A report of the findings would be compiled and sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions for a decision on whether to prosecute, he said.
The six policemen involved in the incident are still working and have been sent to other areas. “No, they have not been suspended yet,” Colonel Sam Makhele said. “Only once investigations are done, a decision will be taken ... but they have not been deployed to the same area.”
Earlier yesterday, 45 people arrested for public violence on Wednesday appeared in the Ficksburg Magistrate’s Court, where about 200 people sang and toyi-toyied, demanding the release of the group.
Leading the march, Lereko Manako, of the Concerned Citizens of Meqheleng group, said they would not leave until their members were freed. By 4pm, the 45 were released on a warning and told to re-appear on May 24.
Manako claimed scores of residents were injured in Wednesday’s protest when police shot at them.
“People were trampled and hurt in the commotion and we don't even know if it was live ammunition or rubber bullets.”