At noon yesterday at the Foreman Road settlement in Clare Estate, Durban, police brutally crushed a peaceful and unarmed demonstration of settlement dwellers, who were demanding land and housing in the city and protesting against forced removals and the ongoing removal of basic services from shack settlements. Police shot randomly into the group, including using live ammunition; police charged the crowd with riot shields, backed up by riot trucks, picking up individuals at random for arrest and confiscating money, cell phones and cameras at gunpoint.

The Foreman Road residents followed due procedure in notifying the Ethekwini Municipality of the march. The Municipality, however, prohibited the march in flagrant violation of the Constitution and the Regulation of Gatherings Act. The FXI, as a matter of policy, condemns the Municipality’s blatant disregard for the rights of marginalized communities in particular to exercise their freedom of expression. 

The police’s response has been similarly unlawful in that the Gatherings Act requires that police, even in the event of a prohibited march (as in this case), to “…Call upon the persons participating in the gathering or demonstration to disperse…” and “…the degree of force which may be so used shall not be greater than is necessary for dispersing the persons gathered and shall be proportionate to the circumstances of the case and the object to be attained…”