An analysis of the policing of service delivery protests in the Free State

Abstract

The study investigated the policing of service delivery protests in South Africa with specific reference to Free State province. Failure by local governments to provide basic services to the previously disadvantaged South Africans has led to a number of service delivery protests taking place. The manner in which these protests are managed by the police in South Africa more especially the Public Order Police who are specialists in this field, raises concerns. One would perceive that the police are losing the battle in dealing with protest action for they are criticised for their brutal tactics in quelling the violence. This brutal handling of protesters dates back to the apartheid era and not much has changed contrary to the expectations of a newly formed democratic country. This therefore led to the investigation as to why the police in South Africa fail to contain such protest actions. The South African Police Services (SAPS) as it is known in a democratic South Africa employed tactics from international countries in order to introduce more professionalism in the SAPS. Although better tactics have been introduced, this did not seem to improve the situation because not only are properties destroyed but many lives are also lost through police action. The researcher conducted his investigation in the central part of South Africa in the Free State Province concentrating in the three main areas; namely Bloemfontein, Welkom and Bethlehem where the Public Order Police units are based. The investigation resulted in the researcher arriving at the conclusion that there are a number of challenges that are experienced by the SAPS when dealing with protests and the main problem identified was that of a shortage of manpower. This problem create challenges when it came to managing the number of protests taking place and exacerbated by not allowing the police to use the tactics that they were trained in. As much as we acknowledge these challenges, there are best practices that can be learnt from international countries. The crowd psychology strategies applied by the Swedish police as well as the high tolerance level of the British police, are the good practices that can be recommended in dealing with protests in South Africa.