The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party has lashed out at police for the manner in which they conducted themselves while effecting arrests in Diepsloot, north of Johannesburg.
Officers were allegedly caught on camera asking people to identify certain body parts in indigenous South African languages if they could not produce their identity documents or a passport.
VIDEO | ‘I almost got arrested because my Tsonga is different from that of the police officer’:
Police are alleged to have arrested those who failed to identify the body part they were instructed to identify.
The EFF’s Sinawo Tambo says: “We must condemn the police who we saw this morning (Friday) doing door-to-door raids in Diepsloot and when a person can’t provide an ID or passport they ask them to explain what an elbow is in Xistonga.”
“This is what led to the murder of our people in Boipatong in the early 90s. If you couldn’t say Ndololwane you get killed. And now if you can’t say elbow in Xitsonga you get arrested. The people are perpetuating the criminalisation of our people based on how they look, based on the texture of the hair and colour of their skin and based on their dialect and it must not be condemned. The police must not sink to the level of vigilante groups simply to please them.”
“You should not murder someone because they don’t have a passport,” EFF Spokesperson Sinawo Thabo addressing the media outside murdered Elvis Nyathi’s home in #Diepsloot. #OperationDudula #SABCNews pic.twitter.com/TBnT2rpHhi
— Sipho King K Kekana (@KingKAzania) April 8, 2022
On Wednesday police confirmed that one person was killed in a mob attack in Diepsloot north of Johannesburg.
About 24 undocumented foreign nationals were also arrested.
Scores of disgruntled residents have embarked on a protest over the escalating crime in the area.
