(FXI/IFEX) – The FXI has sent a formal protest letter to the member of the Executive Council responsible for safety and security in Limpopo Province, Dikeledi Magadzi, calling for action against a police officer who threatened to assault a journalist who works for the newspapers “Limpopo Mirror” and “Zoutsopansberger”. On 1 April 2004, during a […]
(FXI/IFEX) – The FXI has sent a formal protest letter to the member of the Executive Council responsible for safety and security in Limpopo Province, Dikeledi Magadzi, calling for action against a police officer who threatened to assault a journalist who works for the newspapers “Limpopo Mirror” and “Zoutsopansberger”.
On 1 April 2004, during a protest march in the town of Makhado, Inspector K.M. Mulaudzi, a member of the Thohoyandou Police’s Anti-Crime Combat Unit, reportedly threatened to beat journalist Frans Van der Merwe because he told the officer he was “talking nonsense.” The incident allegedly followed an altercation between the journalist and Mulaudzi. The inspector had approached Van der Merwe and a media colleague, Andries Jacobus van Zyl, wanting to know why they had “instructed” an operator to stop loading two tractors onto a police truck. The journalists denied giving such instructions, saying instead that they had merely asked the operator why the tractors were being loaded onto the police truck.
Inspector Mulaudzi aggressively told Van der Merwe that he would “take off his uniform and kick him [and] he can go to the station and lay a charge.” When the journalist asked Mulaudzi to identify himself, as required by law, the inspector refused to do so. He only later agreed to disclose his name when asked by his commanding officer. A charge of “intimidation” was eventually laid at Makhado police station.
The FXI said it was particularly concerned by the fact that the matter was reported to Deputy Provincial Commissioner Charles van Wyk and the Thohoyandou area manager, Commissioner Maepe, but that neither offered to help the journalists nor took any action against the police officer. Both were present at the scene. Commissioner van Wyk reportedly even warned the two journalists to “stop intimidating this man [Inspector Mulaudzi] or you will get into trouble.”
The FXI added that it was gravely concerned about the “arrogant, bullish and intimidatory tactics” of a member of the police force against a journalist doing his lawful duties. Furthermore, the organisation said it wished to register its deep disappointment over the fact that senior members of the police force who were present at the scene declined to take action against the officer and effectively condoned the illegal actions of their junior colleague.
The FXI said it was unacceptable that a heavily armed member of the forces could threaten to kick a defenceless 66-year-old person merely for saying that the officer was “talking nonsense.” The organisation added that members of the police force are trained to reasonably deal with any situation that may confront them. If the journalist had committed an offence, the proper course of action would have been to place him under arrest and charge him, “as Inspector Mulaudzi was no doubt empowered to do.”
The FXI termed Inspector Mulaudzi’s actions and those of his senior officers as not only an assault against a journalist exercising his constitutional right and duty of informing the public, but also an attack on press freedom and the right to freedom of expression in South Africa.
