Arrogance of power
A curious little story is playing itself out in the Human Rights Commission. The commission had previously decided that the Minister of Police, Nathi Mthethwa, should apologise to Chumani Maxwele, a Cape Town student arrested and assaulted by members of the VIP Protection Unit.
INDIFFERENT: Minister of Police Nathi Mthethwa inspects a parade at the opening of a new police station in Chungwa in the Eastern Cape. Picture by Mark AndrewsMaxwele was arrested two years ago by members of the unit, apparently for showing the middle finger to President Jacob Zuma's motorcade.
After his arrest while jogging on the M3 highway in February 2010, Maxwele was bundled into a VIP protection vehicle, hooded and had his hands tied behind his back.
He was held in police custody for 24 hours and, bizarrely, interrogated by intelligence agents about his ANC affiliations. He was then forced under duress to write a letter of apology to Zuma.
Before continuing, it needs to be said that there is, in some quarters, a level of hysteria about what's dubbed "the blue lights brigade". Listening to these quarters, you would think South Africa was the only country in which the police have a responsibility to transport senior politicians, judges, diplomats and other VIPs. Or that nowhere else is this done with flashing blue lights and impatient, speedy motorcades.
Encouraged by the media, this hysteria has led to some citizens deciding, dangerously, that they don't have to yield to these "blue lights bullies" on the road.
This is of course tantamount to hindering the police in their duties, because that's what those blue lights motorcades are: policemen on duty.
You wouldn't block a police car in traffic - or any other emergency vehicle - with its lights flashing. I don't know why some of us behave differently when the police car is a black SUV that may or may not have a fat cat politician on board.
Only Maxwele can explain why he flipped the motorcade the bird, for instance. No doubt he shouldn't have been subjected to the humiliation he suffered, but what constitutional right did he think he was exercising by pissing off armed state agents?
When Maxwele took this mistreatment to the HRC, the commission agreed that the unit had violated his constitutional rights to human dignity, freedom and security, privacy, freedom of expression, peaceful and unarmed demonstration and political choice.
The police were also found to have infringed his rights as a detained person. It ordered Mthethwa, the minister responsible for the police, to apologise to Maxwele.
A separate, civil claim against the police by Maxwele - in which he is claiming R1.5m in damages - is still pending.
Mthethwa used this in part as a basis to appeal the commission's findings. He lost, but more importantly he seems to have invited the commission, in its appeal ruling, to make further comment about his own conduct throughout the case. The commission accused the minister of acting in a manner meant to undermine it, and which disregarded its constitutional mandate.
At least one part of Maxwele's case against the police - the HRC complaint - would have ended quietly had Mthethwa just written the apology.
It's clear that the police behaved appallingly. Instead, the minister decided to take the matter on judicial review. He's effectively asked the courts to reverse the HRC's findings against his department.
So why the official reluctance to comply with the commission's ruling? There really isn't much that Mthethwa stands to gain, even if a court reversed the commission's findings.
It's not like he'll save the department any money by securing a reversal. Could it be that there is some in-principle objection to saying "sorry"?
Could it be that our politicians are now so high and mighty that they find it objectionable to apologise to ordinary folk? The whole episode reflects poorly on the government and the ruling party. We've forgiven a lot from our rulers over the last 18 years, understandably so. But even voters who have overlooked egregious mistakes, ineptitude, dishonesty and even corruption, can still draw the line at arrogance.
As the ANC takes stock 100 years after its founding, it should also reflect on when, and why, it is that sorry became the hardest word.
SifisoNdwandwe
Maxwele must go to hell with his HRC complaint, he disrespected the presidency and he has payed for it. infect they should have given him one or two leashes, stupid fool.We don't want a mikki-mouse police in this country, we want them to act on people who think their rights are above everything else that they can just disrespect the presidency, well done police. Mthethwa nothing to apologize for my minister.
