For most Southern Africans over 40, mentioning SWAPO brings back memories of the Namibian freedom fighting organisation that operated during the height of the Apartheid State’s defence against “total onslaught”. For Biznews.com columnist Irvine Green, though, SWAPO means Super Wide Awake Assistant to Police Officers. Unfortunately for the Cape Town police beating this unarmed man, captured in this video posted on youtube today (and embedded below), the Super Wide Awake can also turn their cameras against them. The sooner goons like these realise the world is full of Kirsties watching your every move – and brave enough to post it for the rest of us to see – the better off society will be. – AH
From SAPA
South Africa’s under-fire police faced a fresh scandal Friday after footage emerged of uniformed officers punching and kicking an unarmed man on a street in Cape Town.
The footage, filmed by an eyewitness and posted on YouTube, showed two officers manhandling the suspect, with the help of two uniformed private security guards.
A security guard rips the man’s trousers off and then a police officer punches and kicks the man in the groin. Another officer holds the man by the neck.
It is unclear when the attack took place and police have not responded to requests for details.
But the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) which governs the city and its surrounds, suggests the “vicious attack” took place on Thursday.
“What was even more disturbing is that police aggressively manhandled, pushed, choked, punched and kicked him repeatedly,” said a DA lawmaker Dianne Kohler Barnard.
South Africa’s police are frequently embroiled in allegations of brutality, yet prosecutions rarely occur.
The country’s Human Rights Commission recently voiced concern at the continued use of force by the country’s police amid a string of allegations of brutality recorded in the past months.
“People living in South Africa are tired in living in fear of both criminals and a handful of thuggish police officers,” said the DA’s Barnard.
South Africa’s police force has come under intense scrutiny since shooting dead 34 striking platinum miners in August 2012.
Police watchdog the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) was not immediately available to comment on the most recent incident. – SAPA
