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so reminiscent of apartheid-era police brutality it raised questions over whether the country’s police service was failing.
Andries Tatane was shot in the chest with what were likely to have been rubber bullets and beaten by over half a dozen officers at a protest this week over poor delivery of municipal services in Ficksburg, 300km south of Johannesburg.
The incident was videotaped and shown nationally on state broadcaster SABC, which then stopped airing it after the ruling African National Congress and others complained the images were too shocking and disturbing.
“In what the ANC can only describe as resembling apartheid-era strong arm tactics . . . members of the South African Police Service violently killed an unarmed protester after severely beating him in the full glare of the Ficksburg community,” the ruling party said in a statement.
The number of people killed by police has dropped sharply since apartheid, but there were still almost 1 000 deaths in police custody or as a result of police action in the year ending April 2010, according to the Independent Complaints Directorate, which investigates police abuses.
Seven of those deaths resulted from torture, it said. The ANC, which took power when apartheid ended 17-years ago, tried to change a police force known for the arbitrary and brutal killings of thousands who wanted to end white-minority rule.
It changed the name from police “force” to police “service” and said its focus was to protect all citizens.
But the police service today is filled with underpaid officers prone to corruption who have done little to combat some of the highest crime rates of any of the Group of 20 global economic powers. – Reuters.