Cape Town - Major-General Jeremy Vearey, the South African Police Services’ Head of Anti-Gang Strategy in the Western Cape, denounced government’s decision to deploy the army in xenophobic hotspots saying it was worrying.
“We are loathe to approach this from a militarised point and as police, we would want our intervention to be a last resort,” said Vearey.
“The deployment of the army in other parts of the country worries me,” he said.
Vearey was discussing response and intervention strategy should attacks on foreign nationals spread to the Western Cape at panel discussion hosted by the University of Cape Town’s Safety and Violence Initiative on Thursday.
“The previous provincial commissioner [General Mzwandile Petros] claimed we had everything under control but come May 22 2008, when attacks started in the province, we were unprepared,” said Vearey.
Vearey said that the Western Cape attacks followed two weeks after the last one in Gauteng in 2008 illustrated the lack of preparation.
He said this time, police understood that social and civil power would be key in easing tensions in potential xenophobic hotspots.
“In 2008, we forced our hand. We said deploy the military to restore public order and we can talk later,” said Vearey.
“But we found that when we engaged civil society organisations which had real ties in communities, they were able to mediate”.
He discussed government’s reluctance to call the attacks xenophobic.
“Police operate in a normative environment. When we deal with a case of rape, we know we must do X, Y, Z. When we deal with murder, we know what process to follow to arrest and charge a suspect”.
“Police are leading these discussions and because we operationalise our response in reference to a crime, we call it attacks on foreign nationals,” he said.
Vearey said that was the case in 2008 too and he again found it worrisome that police were leading discussions with government.
“It is dangerous if police are the only ones with strategies as the slant will always be securocratic”.
On motives for violence or any incitement, Vearey said he did not believe any leaders had set off the violence in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
“This is economic, not political,” he said.
However, he said, in areas where there was an absence of actual civic power, “anarchy ruled”.
“Social determinants and triggering factors exists out there but it is not police’s job to deal with that so we are seriously engaging civil society,” he said.
Vearey added that he wanted to emphasise that in 2008, attacks on foreign nationals were directed largely to those legally here as citizens.
“They were South African citizens. These were not foreign illegal attacks and not all not all were politically textured xenophobia”.
Instead, said Vearey, many of the 2008 attacks were connected to established business people who were “fighting for survival”, opportunity crimes for many of the young attackers, and materially motivated.
Vearey also warned that increasing prosecutions and policing would not solve the problem. “If the social determinants are still there, our arresting them will not stop the violence and we must very be careful of over reliance on security and intelligence to solve the problem,” he said.
“Because a few years down the line, you will end up with a society that will bite you in the back; a surveillance state”.
ANA