Public Works was "aware" of security gaps

“On the 12th of December, 2013, the specific security challenges…were listed in a letter to the director general of public works and a number of those aspects are still requiring attention,” SA Police Service major general Charl Annandale said while briefing Parliament’s portfolio committee on police on the October 21 breach of parliamentary security by protesting students.

Students managed to force their way through the gates of two parliamentary access points during the protest, bringing into question the adequacy of security at the national legislature.

Annandale listed several security problems identified at the parliamentary precinct and which had been reported to the public works department.

They included poor access control systems at vehicle and pedestrian entrances, a “lack of shelters” at the entrances for officers, specifically during inclement weather, an inadequate perimeter fence, and “no designated delivery checkpoint for trucks”.

“In my consultation with the representatives from the protection security services indicated that the status quo is still the same and there are meetings taking place with regard to the total upgrade of the parliamentary precinct but it’s not at this stage been addressed…,” Annandale said.

MPs have vowed to summon public works officials to Parliament to explain why they had taken no action in this regard.

During the same meeting, acting national police commissioner Khomotso Phahlane warned the students protests experienced during October were not the last the country would see.

“We have accepted that it [student protests] did not go away. We have accepted that it is going to come back – intelligence suggests – towards the end of January, towards somewhere in February,” Phahlane said.

“We cannot consider it to be history. It is something that is going to be with us.”

Phahlane denied that police used disproportional force to deal with the protestors in the past few weeks, insisting officers used “maximum restraint” when dealing with protestors, despite being pelted with rocks and attacked during the unrest.

“When the students embarked on #feesmustfall we embarked on #maximumrestraint and we are grateful after two weeks of being under siege we can safely say there were no fatalities,” he said.

“There will be cases of course that would have been reported – assault and so on but if you take that in relation to the attacks, we are bound to applaud the members in how they managed the situation.”

The Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) are investigating 17 cases related to the student protests.

Eight cases of assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm are being probed against officers in the North West. Four cases against police are being investigated in the Eastern Cape, three in the Western Cape, one in the Free State, and one in Gauteng.

Some political parties and student organisations have accused police of using undue force against students.

But, Phahlane said officers were forced to drive students back when they were pelted with rocks, or when property was being threatened during the nationwide protests.

“We will execute our mandate as per the Constitution while we respect the right…to protest, to march, for people to raise their issues. The constitution never said we must be violent in marching or raising issues. ..but unfortunately the situation on ground escalated to that level where we were left with no option but to exercise our mandate,” he said.

“If there was force…brutal force, it would have been proportional, that is why today we don’t talk about any casualties.”

Asked about reports that a third force was at play, Phahlane said he believed some of the protestors were not students.

“The morning before the majority of the students converged we saw people there whose identity is very questionable. We are following up what is their agenda.”