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These inhumane evictions by City of Cape Town Anti-Land Invasion Unit @ eThembini Kayelitsha. #LockdownSA #BlackLivesMatter must be completely rejected . pic.twitter.com/cwHtd0mMaI
— Irvin Jim (@IrvinJimSA) July 1, 2020
Joemat-Petterson said the actions of the law enforcement officers are appalling and unwarranted. An abhorrent video of a naked man being evicted by law enforcement officers has been doing the rounds on social media today.
Joemat-Pettersson has summoned the leadership of the City of Cape Town’s Municipal Police Services to give an account of what transpired. “Law enforcement officers have a mandate ‘to protect and serve’, and this mandate was undermined in this instance. Their actions are unacceptable and run contrary to the spirit of their work,” Joemat-Pettersson said.
Their actions are not in keeping with the Constitution and the Police Act which governs the work of the police at municipal level.
The actions by the law enforcement officers are in gross violation of the man’s right to human dignity as that right is enshrined in the Constitution. The actions are even more shameful especially in the context of the implementation of the State of National Disaster, which prohibited evictions.
“The police officers did not allow the man to get dressed at all and seemed intent on publicly humiliating him. That is not in their job description and we want to encourage the victim to lay a charge against the City Law Enforcement officers and their managers. We cannot allow law enforcement officials to act as a gang against citizens of our country.”
Joemat-Pettersson called for the officers that were involved in the actions to be suspended with immediate effect.
The committee has also noted that the City of Cape Town proceeds with inhumane evictions in the middle of winter, despite the call by the Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation when she was in Cape Town recently, to stop evictions. “The City Police is not a law unto itself and must be held to account. There is no private police force in the country and the Municipal Police conduct in this regard is shocking,” added Joemat-Pettersson.
