CAPE TOWN, Monday
A REBEL South African police lieutenant who accused his colleagues of
brutality in suppressing unrest in coloured townships was arrested and
suspended today.
Gregory Rockman, classified as coloured (mixed-race) under apartheid
race laws, was charged with attending an illegal gathering after trying
to lead a small rally against his transfer from Mitchell's Plain near
Cape Town.
The country's police chief Hennie de Witt said Rockman and another
officer arrested in the protest had been suspended.
''The South African Police is a disciplined force and every member is
obliged to give effect to lawful instructions,'' Mr de Witt said in a
statement in Pretoria.
Rockman has risked action against him since he told reporters about
alleged police brutality in putting down unrest before segregated
parliamentary elections in September.
Two riot squad officers were charged on the basis of Rockman's
allegations, but were found not guilty of brutality and unnecessary use
of force.
Today's protest in Harmony Square was close to where Rockman alleged
white riot squads had acted like ''wild dogs'' when they broke up
anti-apartheid demonstrations.
Civil rights group say 20 people were killed in the election-eve
clashes with police but South African authorities say 19 died in mainly
tribal incidents.
In further defiance of police rules, Rockman formed a trade union for
policemen and prison warders last week.
Sixteen people, most of them prison wardens, were arrested with
Rockman at today's protest, at which demonstrators chanted slogans in
support of the trade union.
Rockman's commmanding officer, Colonel Johan Manuel, who is South
Africa's most senior coloured policeman and supports Rockman, has been
transferred to the same white police station at Pinelands, 10 miles from
Mitchell's Plain.
Meanwhile, two black South African political groups took opposing
positions today to President F.W. de Klerk's offer to discuss giving
blacks a share of power.
''The time to negotiate a new constitution has arrived,'' the central
committee of Zulu Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi's moderate Inkatha movement
said in a newly-published document.
''We are determined to keep Inkatha ever ready to respond to any and
all opportunities to negotiate,'' said the group which claims to speak
for one million black South Africans.
The rival Pan Africanist Movement told a news conference in
Johannesburg its only ground for negotiations with Mr de Klerk would be
about the mechanics of a white handover to a socialist African
government elected by universal
franchiser.
Dismissing Mr de Klerk's offer of talks about a black role in the
central government, spokesman Benny Alexander said: ''The ideas of the
government must be ignored . . . rejected in their totality.''--Reuter.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article