IN THE HIGH COURT OF SOUTH AFRICA (Cape High Court, Cape Town) Case No. 21600/12 In the matter between: MINISTER OF POLICE First Applicant NATIONAL COMMISSIONER OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE SERVICE Second Applicant THE PROVINCIAL COMMISSIONER OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE SERVICE FOR THE WESTERN CAPE Third Applicant THE CIVILAN SECRETARIAT FOR THE POLICE SERVICE Fourth Applicant COLONEL M F REITZ Fifth Applicant BRIGADIER Z DLADLA Sixth Applicant COLONEL T RABOLIBA Seventh Applicant and THE PREMIER OF THE WESTERN CAPE First Respondent THE MEMBER OF THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL FOR COMMUNITY SAFETY, WESTERN CAPE Second Respondent THE CITY OF CAPE TOWN Third Respondent THE HON. JUSTICE C O'REGAN N.O. Fourth Respondent ADVVPPIKOLI N.O. Fifth Respondent THE SECRETARY TO THE COMMISSION Sixth Respondent 2 ADV T SIDAKI Seventh Respondent WOMEN'S LEGAL CENTRE Eighth Respondent THE SOCIAL JUSTICE COALITION Ninth Respondent SUPPORTING AFFIDAVIT I the undersigned ABDURRAZACK ("ZACKIE") ACHMAT hereby affirm and say 1. I am an adult male resident at A536 St. Martini Garden, Queen Victoria Street, Cape Town. I am fifty years old. 2. The facts contained herein are true and correct and are within my personal knowledge unless the context indicates otherwise. 3. I have been a political activist since the age of 14. I was a co-founder and Director of the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality, Director of the AIDS Law Project, and a co-founder and chairperson of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC). I have been co-opted to Equal Education's (EE) National Council. EE is an organisation dedicated to realising the right to decent, quality education for all. I am not deposing to this affidavit on behalf of these organisations which have their own interests and decision-making processes. 3 4. I am employed full-time at Ndifuna Ukwazi Trust (Nil) as its Director. NU is a public benefit trust providing legal and social research support to organisations such the Social Justice Coalition (SJC) which seek to promote democracy through active citizenship. NU is one of the organisations which lodged the complaint that led to the First Respondent ("the Premier") appointing the O' Regan Commission of Inquiry. 5. Since 16 June 2008, when I was one of the co-founders of the Social Justice Coalition (SJC), I have been active in its campaigns, research and education work. I have been co-opted to the SJC Secretariat and Executive Council. 6. Currently, my primary task in the SJC is to support Mandla Majola, Angy Peter, Joel Bregman and others on the Criminal Justice Task Team. 7. This affidavit is structured in the following way: 7.1 Brief remarks on crime in Khayelitsha and who must speak about it. 7.2 Background to my involvement in the call and complaint for a Commission of Inquiry into Khayelitsha policing and its interface with the criminal justice system. 7.3 Advocate Thembilihle Sidaki (Seventh Respondent) 4 7.4 Confirming the contents in the affidavit of Mandla Majola, where he specifically refers to me or where the contents fall within my knowledge. Brief remarks on crime in Khayelitsha and who must speak about it 8. The stark inequality between the majority of people who live in Khayelitsha, Manenberg and elsewhere in Cape Town is not confined to social and economic inequality. Most of my comrades and colleagues feel unsafe in their homes, on the streets, on public transport, in schools and elsewhere. Their lives are blighted by crime which sometimes involves extreme violence. 9. Where I live and work in the central business district of Cape Town, I feel and have been completely safe. My apartment block has several security guards; at least two security guards from the Central City Improvement District (CCID) patrol my street day and night. The South African Police Service and Metro Police are visible on Long Street, the busiest part of Cape Town at night, a place with very many bars, clubs and restaurants and including a sex shop. Crime hardly takes place on this street and elsewhere in the City. I can walk anywhere 1 wish at any time of the day or night. A simple fact will illustrate this inequality. The Cape Town CBD alone has more than 100 CCTV cameras monitoring streets for antisocial and criminal behaviour. There are only 14 such CCTV cameras in Khayelitsha with a much larger and more vulnerable population than the inner City. 10. Most of the people who keep our City safe return to townships where they fear for their lives and those of their loved ones. Many of the people most exposed to crime where they live are also among the most low-paid workers in the City, who cannot afford to pay for private security to keep them safe in their homes. Many of them live in Khayelitsha. 11. The fact that the equal right to safety, the protection of life and property is denied to the majority of people while a minority can buy the constitutional right to be free from all sources of violence (whether public or private) through the use of private security is morally indefensible and legally intenable. 12. Personally, I know more people who live in Khayelitsha than any other part of our country. For example, Lumkile Sizila who lives in Makhaza, Norute Nobula who lives in Site C, Yoliswa Dwane who lives in Site B, Zukiswa Qezo who lives in RR Section, Sifiso Zitwana, Thandokazi Njamela, Axolile Notywala from Green Point are long-time comrades and very close friends. I do not speak on their behalf, I work with them and speak on my own behalf and in the public interest. 13. I am also friends and comrades with many African, Coloured, Indian and White people who work in Khayelitsha every day. They include Sister Nompumelo Mantangana (from Gugulethu), a senior HIV/TB specialist nurse who works at Site B clinic. Sis Mpumi is the chairperson of the SJC; Faniswa Filani (Nyanga East), Brad Brockman, 6 Dr Gilles van Cutsem (Muizenberg), Doron Isaacs (Woodstock), Michelle Adler (Sea Point) and many others. 14. People (like me) who are safely privileged have a special duty to support people in Khayelitsha and any other working class community by speaking out about the daily injustices, indignities pain and extreme violence they face. Crime disproportionately affects the poorest and most vulnerable. Taking this stand is not only right, it is indispensable to transforming the "apartheid mindset" and practices that continue to divide people and are exacerbated by geographical separation. 15. In addition, 14 years of working with people in Khayelitsha has involved actively engaging all levels of government. I have been in meetings of the City of Cape Town when it was under the rule of the ANC and the DA; I have attended countless meetings of provincial and national government officials (especially regarding HIV) with my comrades in Khayelitsha. 16. The remarks of the Minister Nathi Mthethwa, Provincial Commissioner Lamoer and others implying that people who do not live in Khayelitsha should not address its social, economic and safety problems are unbecoming of people in power. It can be read as a narrow racial nationalism that undermines our Constitution and the Freedom Charter which I have supported since 1976. The Minister and Provincial Commissioner's insinuations are particularly demeaning to Coloured, Indian and White people in our organisations who work in Khayelitsha. 7 It is also demeaning of nurses, doctors, pharmacists, police and other people who work in Khayelitsha. Background to my involvement in the call for the Commission of Inquiry into Crime in Khayelitsha 17. Since its beginnings, the The Treatment Action Campaign was concerned about gender-based violence, including rape and domestic violence, as the issues relate to HIV and health. 18. Lorna Mlofana's rape (as we understood it at the time) and her brutal murder, which was an HIV hate crime, galvanised TAC and many organisations inside Khayelitsha. As a TAC member and leader, I was directly involved in this campaign. I also regarded it as my duty as a human being to support the work of Khayelitsha comrades and organisations. This tragedy played out in the criminal justice system, including SAPS, over almost six years (December 2003 - September 2009). 19. I worked on Nandipha Makeke's case as the records in this case show. Nadipha's elderly parents had to deal with this tragedy for about two years. My comrades and colleagues Pumeza Runeyi, Amelia Mfiki and others had to flee their homes because of SAPS inability to protect their lives and property. 20. Mandla Majola fully sets out my direct involvement in the work against xenophobia during 2008. 8 21. As an activist and gay man, I was also active in the "Justice for Zoliswa Nkonyana" campaign after her brutal murder because she was lesbian This case exemplifies what is wrong with policing and the broader criminal justice system. Personally, I want to point out that the cruel and unjust perception that most if not all Black men, particularly African and Coloured working class men, are potential rapists and homophobic, is belied by TAC, the SJC and EE's work on this case. The majority of people who attended court cases and marches were heterosexual Black men and women from Khayelitsha. Men, including Lumkile Sizila, Michael Hamnca, Mandla Majola and Sifiso Zitwana, played leading roles in this work as all men should. 22. I have also been directly involved in the SJC's Criminal Justice Task Team as a researcher, educator and leader. I have attended a great many meetings, workshops, marches, pickets and other events. These meetings include those with MEC Albert Fritz, Premier Helen Zille and the National Inspectorate Task Team set up by the National Commissioner.