Smmes unrest riots looting police Sanlam Centre Pinetown

Pinecrest Centre in Pinetown after looters emptied the supermarkets and other shops in the centre last week. Photograph: Supplied

Riots: Gender Commission OUTRAGED by ‘inhumane treatment’ of looters

While the Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) says it doesn’t condone stealing, it has taken issue with how some of the looters were treated

Smmes unrest riots looting police Sanlam Centre Pinetown

Pinecrest Centre in Pinetown after looters emptied the supermarkets and other shops in the centre last week. Photograph: Supplied

The Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) has expressed concern over how law enforcement officials handled some of the looting incidents in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.

SANDF and SAPS members have been accused by some of abusing their power, particularly in how some have responded during the riots. While the commission says it doesn’t condone stealing, it has taken issue with how some of the looters were treated.

“That, being said, as a human rights institution, the CGE cannot put a blind eye to various videos circulating in the social media platforms wherein men, women, the elderly and children were treated in an inhumane manner for stealing. The Commission does not condone any form of stealing, however degrading people and dehumanizing them does not also make it less of a crime. There are many ways of punishing people without having their rights infringed as purported in the videos that we have seen,” the commission’s chairperson Tamara Mathebula.

Riots: Gender Commission wants probe into some incidents

The Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) is particularly unhappy with an incident, during which women were apparently made to swim in something that looked like water/alcohol spillage. It has called for an investigation into such incidents “in order to have a punitive measure against those who have found to have erred in the process.”

“No matter how angry those who made those women to do such an act allegedly in Mamelodi Mall, it cannot be that women were objectified or demeaned in such a manner. Those women in the videos are mothers, sisters, and aunts to many. Imagine the humiliation they will suffer for having been subjected to such acts”

Tamara Mathebula, Chairperson of the Commission for Gender Equality

“The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa in Chapter 2 guarantees everyone rights. And those rights extend to the looters too. The law must be applied but not in the manner in which people had their dignity and bodily integrity removed,” Mathebula said.