This news aggregator site highlights South African labour news from a wide range of internet and print sources. Each posting has a synopsis of the source article, together with a link or reference to the original. Postings cover the range of labour related matters from industrial relations to generalist human resources.
News24 reports that the conduct of police and the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) in the first four days of the national Covid-19 lockdown has come into sharp focus.
There have been three deaths, allegedly at the hands of law enforcement officers, and claims of abuse, heavy-handed policing and the use of excessive force. The lockdown started on Friday, in a bid to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19). President Cyril Ramaphosa deployed the SANDF to assist police in ensuring residents stayed indoors, except to buy food and medication or to get medical attention. Only people who work for businesses deemed to render essential services may leave home to go to work. Footage of soldiers and police officers beating people or forcing them to perform strenuous exercises has been widely circulated on social media. Three people have died since Friday after alleged interactions with a metro police officer and at least two police officers, one in Gauteng and two in the Western Cape. In the first incident, a Vosloorus man was gunned down in his home after allegedly being followed by police. The man's children, aged four and 11, were also injured in the shooting. In the second incident, a man was allegedly beaten with a hammer and tasered by police in Cape Town after being caught on a beer run. Details about the second death in the Western Cape are not yet available.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Azarrah Karrim at News24
- Read too, Lockdown brutality exposed, on page 1 of The Star of 31 March 2020
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page