Editorial
The shooting of Eldorado teenager Nathaniel Julies by members of the SAPS has once again brought into sharp focus the level of police brutality suffered by black communities in South Africa.
The groundswell of disapproval and outrage over the past three days since the incident on Wednesday will be another short-lived protest action and campaigning, and the SAPS will be on to their next victim.
The arrest of the two police officers linked to his murder gives a glimpse of hope for justice.
Nathaniel, 16, who had Down syndrome, was unarmed when he was shot and dragged into a police van. His death has united the coloured community and given it a chance to air its views on coloured culture and the continued neglected suffering of coloured communities.
Rightly or wrongly, some have chosen to distance the coloured community from the Black Lives Matter movement, electing to rally behind what they call Coloured Lives Matters. But that is not the import of what needs to be said about police brutality and South Africa’s culture of violence today.
The latter needs to be confronted and addressed in a way that will bring about solutions. At the heart of police brutality in this country is its violent past where it was normal for police to spray the backs of women and children who were running away with bullets.
In 2019, there were 3836 assault cases opened against members of the SAPS, and in the same period, 393 people died as a result of police action. In the same year, 214 people died in police custody under different circumstances ranging from suicide, natural causes and succumbing to injuries.
Nathaniel was murdered in the same month that Marikana miners were mowed down by the police.
Here’s hoping that his killing will highlight what needs to be fixed within our police force. These incidents make it hard for communities to co-operate with the police because they still operate like the murderous police force of the apartheid era.
Sunday Tribune