SA police use rubber bullets on Zimbabweans in Johannesburg

By Tichaona Sibanda
12 March 2010

Scores of Zimbabweans were injured on Thursday, some seriously, when South African police indiscriminately opened fire with rubber bullets on travelers boarding buses to return to Zimbabwe at Johannesburg Park Station.

The police brutality, that included baton-charging the passengers, has provoked widespread outrage and anger among Zimbabweans who described the unprovoked attack as ‘barbaric.’

Sibanengi Dube, spokesman for the MDC in South Africa, told us a large contingent of the police descended on the bus station, the main transit hub in Johannesburg, in the morning. He said many Zimbabweans were preparing to board buses for home when the police started beating them up, searching and looting goods.

‘There was no provocation of any nature to justify such heavy handedness. They (police) clearly indulged in gratuitous violence and abuse against Zimbabweans, not sparing even innocent bystanders,’ Dube said.

To make matters worse, those that were injured were refused treatment in hospitals because they were ‘foreigners.’ We don’t know the reason behind the attack but there is suspicion the police had an issue with the bus operators. It is likely the passengers were caught up in a war between the police and the transport operators but that does not give them the licence to shoot at innocent travelers,’ Dube added.

Female passengers were reportedly subjected to body searches by male police officers who openly fondled their breasts and private parts.

A furious Dube said such behaviour is ‘unacceptable, barbaric, inhuman, idiotic and moronic for people in state uniforms to commit such offences,’ adding that they were shocked by reports that some police officers demanded kisses from female passengers in exchange for freedom.

‘The problem with South African society is that xenophobia does not only reside within common people on the streets or those in shanty areas. Xenophobia has always been manifesting within government departments, within government structures and government apparatus,’ he said.

Dube added; ‘Some of these government officers are prone to making serious inflammatory statements, which can be taken in the wrong context to suggest it is OK to beat a foreigner, it is OK to kill a foreigner, it is OK to arrest a foreigner and demand bribery in exchange for freedom.’

On Friday the Global Zimbabwe Forum sent an urgent request to South Africa’s International Relations Ministry, seeking a meeting about the attacks. Luke Zunga, an official of the GZF, said they were also worried about reports of imminent xenophobic attacks against Zimbabweans.

‘There is widespread warnings, some known by foreign embassies, in the streets of South Africa, in townships, known by some police, by locals, that after the World Cup there will be large scale xenophobic attacks to force Zimbabweans out or mass deportations,’ Zunga said.

‘We want to ask the government if they are aware of this. What are they doing about it? If not what plans are there to avoid the bloodshed? We need to know now so that we can advise these 3 million migrants how to handle a xenophobic situation, if it arises. If you drive people between hard two rocks and they have nowhere to seek refuge, they will end up defending themselves. That will be disaster for South Africa and the region,’ Zunga added.