Heavily armed police ready to pull a trigger at a group of protesting church leaders were threatened with legal actions for wanting to use rubber bullets to disperse them.
Members of the Middelburg Public Orders Police (POP), not willing to negotiate, closed in at the harmless men of God ordering them to disperse or to face consequences. They accused the pastors of contravening the disaster management act under lockdown level 3 when they gathered at Extension 24, on 10 February, in a planned march to the Steve Tshwete municipality to submit a memorandum against the municipality’s plan to demolish churches.
The trigger-happy officers only stopped when Pastor Moafrika Wa Maila, part of the national movement, Pastors Against Church Closure, reminded them of the repercussions of their planned action.”Rest assured, if any of you dare shoots any of us, we are going to deal with you individually,” Moafrika told the police.
“If you were to do anything under disaster management act, when it is uplifted, I will come and deal with you legally because the records and the treatment will still remain. We are not going to be intimidated by police officers. We pray for you everyday that you do not die on duty but you are disrespecting us,” he said.
None of the protesting pastors were arrested. Mpumalanga police spokesperson, Brigadier Leonard Hlathi said police officers should not be deterred from doing their work despite threats of being sued. “They should continue do their work,” he said.
Law expert, Jabulani “JB” Sibanyoni said police must give a reasonable justification to use force. “Section 51 of the Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977 gives police that justification to employ force when making arrests and in maintaining law and order. That force may only be used under certain circumstances,” he explained. “If anyone was injured as a result of police using that force without justification, a civil action against the police would have been taken,” he said.
