Press statement

WORKERS MUST NOT BE VICTIMISED FOR EXPRESSING THEMSELVES

The Freedom of Expression Institute is concerned at the on going arrest of striking municipal workers in various cities and towns across the country. We also wish to condemn in the strongest terms possible, the violence used against the workers especially by the police who have also denied some of them access to medical treatment and legal representation.

Similarly, we would like to express our great concern at the statements attributed to Defense Minister Mosiua Lekota that he will use the military to guard scab workers and tighten security in Durban during the African Union Summit. It is our firm belief that these statements are an attempt to scare people from exercising their right to demonstrate and express their opinions.

We are further perturbed to note that individuals who have expressed solidarity with the striking workers have too been arrested as happened this morning with Mr Trevor Ngwane in Johannesburg. It is every individual's constitutional right to express solidarity with striking workers if they so wish and this includes the freedom to use the press or other media. Putting up posters or painting graffiti walls with messages or words of support for the strike is but one way through which the right to freedom of expression can be asserted.

The right to strike is guaranteed and protected by the constitution and workers must not be victimised for resorting to this form of industrial action. At the same time no one should be harassed for expressing solidarity with the strikers because all rights are interdependent, interrelated and mutually reinforcing and cannot be treated in isolation of each other.

We therefore call upon the state to immediately release those who have been arrested and for all the charges preferred against them to be dropped. In this regard, we also want to remind the state of its constitutional obligation to respect, protect and promote the right of each and every individual in the country to exercise to the fullest extent possible, their right to freedom of expression and association.

Issued by: Simon Kimani Ndung'u

Anti-Censorship Coordinator